Vulnerability · Published May 27, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2026-45892ext4: drop extent cache after doing PARTIAL_VALID1 zeroout

Medium 5.5

In plain English

A medium-severity security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 5% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS NVD)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 94.7% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: drop extent cache after doing PARTIAL_VALID1 zeroout When splitting an unwritten extent in the middle and converting it to initialized in ext4_split_extent() with the EXT4_EXT_MAY_ZEROOUT and EXT4_EXT_DATA_VALID2 flags set, it could leave a stale unwritten extent. Assume we have an unwritten file and buffered write in the middle of it without dioread_nolock enabled, it will allocate blocks as written extent. 0 A B N [UUUUUUUUUUUU] on-disk extent U: unwritten extent [UUUUUUUUUUUU] extent status tree [--DDDDDDDD--] D: valid data |<- ->| ----> this range needs to be initialized ext4_split_extent() first try to split this extent at B with EXT4_EXT_DATA_PARTIAL_VALID1 and EXT4_EXT_MAY_ZEROOUT flag set, but ext4_split_extent_at() failed to split this extent due to temporary lack of space. It zeroout B to N and leave the entire extent as unwritten. 0 A B N [UUUUUUUUUUUU] on-disk extent [UUUUUUUUUUUU] extent status tree [--DDDDDDDDZZ] Z: zeroed data ext4_split_extent() then try to split this extent at A with EXT4_EXT_DATA_VALID2 flag set. This time, it split successfully and leave an written extent from A to N. 0 A B N [UUWWWWWWWWWW] on-disk extent W: written extent [UUUUUUUUUUUU] extent status tree [--DDDDDDDDZZ] Finally ext4_map_create_blocks() only insert extent A to B to the extent status tree, and leave an stale unwritten extent in the status tree. 0 A B N [UUWWWWWWWWWW] on-disk extent W: written extent [UUWWWWWWWWUU] extent status tree [--DDDDDDDDZZ] Fix this issue by always cached extent status entry after zeroing out the second part.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linuxno fix listedDEBIAN-CVE-2026-45892
Debian:13linux6.12.85-1DEBIAN-CVE-2026-45892
Debian:14linux6.18.14-1DEBIAN-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-nvidia-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.8no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.14no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-45892

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux ddf854e59166533b0f46ba32cd6cd9aca3197d1b – before 28db4bfc6f82fd20e2aadb7fc162244109a4eb3158ddae5d77b1db3a27b891c75a8fa120239ac092 – before f0931a5c17005a0c4fc35bd1a001245effc3354bd17857b4fb9ba5745b59be0ef38fd532991fccbf – before d8ee559fccdef713f058cfe5f2c03dc9b18be3b1d67c8ecf3d8fda9b8ef80e6f665d84b6d6ac9d88 – before c2ee51d684adca7645e4aa74adca13f6750390bc7015fcf473796e1d2d876f241bd9e0c36f3d4eef – before a1b962a821e7a52d48212ae269b45808b44112671bf6974822d1dba86cf11b5f05498581cf3488a2 – before 6d882ea3b0931b43530d44149b79fcd4ffc13030
Linux Linux 6.1.167 – before 6.1.168

References