Look up another CVE · open CVE-2026-80538 in the interactive tracker
CVE-2026-80538
xfs: propagate errors from xfs_rtginode_load
Published 2026-08-26 (2 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem fs/xfs. Debian urgency: unimportant.
What to do, per Debian release
Debian's own status for CVE-2026-80538 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source
| Release | Status | Version | What this means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 12bookworm | not affected | 6.1.190-1 | Nothing to do. bookworm never shipped the vulnerable code. |
| Debian 13trixie | not affected | 6.12.113-1 | Nothing to do. trixie never shipped the vulnerable code. |
| Debian 14forky | fixed | 7.1.10-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.10-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian unstablesid | fixed | 7.1.10-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 7.1.10-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
The vulnerability
What the bug is
xfs_rtginode_ensure() treats every xfs_rtginode_load() error other than -ENOENT as success. This can leave the realtime group inode unset after an I/O, allocation, or corruption error. Growfs then continues as though the inode had been loaded. Only -ENOENT means that the inode needs to be created. Return all other errors to the growfs caller.
Where it lives
The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.
fs/xfs/xfs_rtalloc.c
- What this is
- XFS FILESYSTEMMAINTAINERS section matched on fs/xfs/ · linux-xfs@vger.kernel.org · Supported
- Kernel module
- xfs
Check it on the machine
grep -wE 'CONFIG_XFS_FS|CONFIG_XFS_RT' /boot/config-$(uname -r)Reads the booted kernel's own configuration, on the machine and nowhere else. =y is built in, =m is a module, and an is not set line means the code is not there.
lsmod | grep -w xfsPrints a line if that module is loaded right now, and nothing if it is not. One that is not loaded can still be loaded later by anything that needs it.
Show whether Debian builds this, per release
Debian builds this as a loadable module. Every release below compiles it as a module on every flavour, so whether the code is in the running kernel depends on whether that module is loaded.
- bookworm, trixie, forky, sidm
- m
- a loadable module on every flavour - check lsmod, can be blacklisted
- Build switches
- CONFIG_XFS_FS, CONFIG_XFS_RT
- Reads as
- all on means the file is compiled; any one off means it is not.
From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS kbuild Makefiles Debian linux-config packages
Signals
- Published
- 2026-08-26 (2 months ago)source
- CVSS
- 7.1 high
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:Hsource recompute it - Attack vector
- local (AV:L)source
- EPSS
- 0.17%, higher than 5.8% of all CVEssource
- CISA KEV
- not listedthe KEV catalogue
- Debian urgency
- unimportantsource
- Subsystem
- fs/xfs
Upstream fixes
The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source
| Introduced | Fixed in | Commit |
|---|---|---|
| 6.13 | 6.18.46 | ec19cea4ef1c |
| 6.13 | 7.1.10 | 61c5165f02de |
| 6.13 | 7.2 | b7e53968cb88 |
Why the CNA scored it this way
Quoted from the kernel CNA's own scoring file, word for word. A highlighted metric carries the most severe value CVSS v3.1 defines for it, which is what pushes the score up. source
- AV:LAttack vector, local
- The bug is reached only through the local XFS_IOC_FSGROWFSRT ioctl (xfs_file_ioctl -> xfs_growfs_rt -> xfs_growfs_rtg -> xfs_rtginode_ensure); it is not exposed via NFS, ksmbd, or any network packet handler.
- AC:LAttack complexity, low
- A growfs caller can reliably force xfs_rtginode_load() to return a non-ENOENT error using attacker-influenced conditions such as memory pressure, RT device/metadata I/O faults, or corrupted rtgroup inode state, deterministically entering the swallowed-error path.
- PR:LPrivileges required, low
- xfs_growfs_rt() gates on capable(CAP_SYS_ADMIN), which is satisfied by user-namespace root per kernel CNA guidance; only a writable file descriptor on a realtime-enabled XFS mount is additionally required, not init-namespace root.
- UI:NUser interaction, none
- The attacker with the required capability and mount write access issues XFS_IOC_FSGROWFSRT directly; no separate victim action such as opening files or mounting the filesystem is needed beyond that.
- S:UScope, unchanged
- Impact is a host kernel crash or on-disk XFS realtime metadata corruption within the same kernel security domain; it does not cross a VM, container, or IOMMU isolation boundary.
- C:NConfidentiality impact, none
- The failure mode is an unset rtgroup inode pointer followed by NULL xfs_inode dereference during growfs; there is no use-after-free, out-of-bounds read, or other kernel memory disclosure primitive.
- I:HIntegrity impact, high
- Continuing growfs after rtgroup inode load failures lets superblock and realtime bitmap/summary update paths proceed while critical metadata inodes were never loaded, corrupting on-disk XFS realtime metadata integrity (notably on zoned growfs paths that can commit before crashing).
- A:HAvailability impact, high
- When growfs proceeds with NULL rtgroup bitmap or summary inodes, xfs_growfs_rt_bmblock and xfs_rtfile_initialize_blocks dereference the missing xfs_inode and trigger a kernel oops or panic, denying system availability.