Vulnerability Details CVE-2026-43067
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ext4: handle wraparound when searching for blocks for indirect mapped blocks
Commit 4865c768b563 ("ext4: always allocate blocks only from groups
inode can use") restricts what blocks will be allocated for indirect
block based files to block numbers that fit within 32-bit block
numbers.
However, when using a review bot running on the latest Gemini LLM to
check this commit when backporting into an LTS based kernel, it raised
this concern:
If ac->ac_g_ex.fe_group is >= ngroups (for instance, if the goal
group was populated via stream allocation from s_mb_last_groups),
then start will be >= ngroups.
Does this allow allocating blocks beyond the 32-bit limit for
indirect block mapped files? The commit message mentions that
ext4_mb_scan_groups_linear() takes care to not select unsupported
groups. However, its loop uses group = *start, and the very first
iteration will call ext4_mb_scan_group() with this unsupported
group because next_linear_group() is only called at the end of the
iteration.
After reviewing the code paths involved and considering the LLM
review, I determined that this can happen when there is a file system
where some files/directories are extent-mapped and others are
indirect-block mapped. To address this, add a safety clamp in
ext4_mb_scan_groups().
Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score
EPSS Score 0.001
EPSS Ranking 23.3%
CVSS Severity
CVSS v3 Score 9.8
Products affected by CVE-2026-43067
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.15.203
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.15.204
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:5.15.205
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.1.167
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.12.77
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.12.78
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.14
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.16
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.17
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.18
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.19
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.18.20
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19.10
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19.4
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19.6
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19.7
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19.8
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.19.9
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.6.130
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cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.6.131