CVE-2026-98975

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

xfs: stop exchanging reflink flags when exchanging mappings

When an exchange covers both files from offset 0 to i_disk_size, xmi_can_exchange_reflink_flags() assumes every mapping moved and hands the reflink flag over to the other file.

That assumption is wrong. A file can still own shared blocks past i_disk_size, e.g. after EXCHANGE_RANGE_TO_EOF sets a smaller size without unmapping anything. The flag is cleared anyway, and the next write to such a block happens in place instead of CoW, corrupting the other file that shares it.

Commit a23eca88448e (xfs: fix exchange-range reflink flag clearing issue with INO1_WRITTEN) fixed one instance of this. Rather than add another special case, stop moving the flags. xfs_exchmaps_ensure_reflink() already sets the flag on both inodes before the exchange, so both just keep it.

Nothing sets CLEAR_INO{1,2}_REFLINK anymore. Intents logged by older kernels may still carry them; recovery already masks them off, so they stay in the log format mask and are ignored.

XFS_IOC_SWAPEXT has the same problem: it moves the reflink flag from one inode to the other along with the extents. Just removing that is not enough here: the exchange path flags both inodes up front in xfs_exchmaps_ensure_reflink(), but swapext has no such step, so the inode receiving the shared extents would be left without the flag. Set it on both inodes instead, and make sure both have a CoW fork, since an inode with the reflink flag is expected to have one.

The flag now stays until FALLOC_FL_UNSHARE_RANGE, xfs_scrub, or a truncate to zero removes it.

Affected Software

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/1fa2f3a7ef7ee0f2503a4b0afe24bc8c9d0820be
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4756c94260e69ce42612b8220c3614f02f7a11d5
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7d3b9b2c9dc57f93f36c716ab752548cb4db9900
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d84d6c1a7f1e2de9e601703a326a4c1b7b421943