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FAILED: patch "[PATCH] ovl: fortify ovl_copy_xattr() against underlying layer" failed to apply to 5.15-stable tree

PATCH [email protected] 1 participant 1 message Nov 4

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The patch below does not apply to the 5.15-stable tree.
If someone wants it applied there, or to any other stable or longterm tree, then please email the backport, including the original git commit id to <[email protected]>.

To reproduce the conflict and resubmit, you may use the following commands:

git fetch https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git/ linux-5.15.y
git checkout FETCH_HEAD
git cherry-pick -x e6b9117076fb4c0ff4a670efa9c876d9a50d79ab
# <resolve conflicts, build, test, etc.>
git commit -s
git send-email --to '<[email protected]>' --in-reply-to '2026110401-avatar-tapioca-21c6@gregkh' --subject-prefix 'PATCH 5.15.y' 'HEAD^..'

Possible dependencies:

thanks,

greg k-h

------------------ original commit in Linus's tree ------------------

From e6b9117076fb4c0ff4a670efa9c876d9a50d79ab Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Amir Goldstein <[email protected]>
Date: Fri, 16 Oct 2026 09:33:58 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] ovl: fortify ovl_copy_xattr() against underlying layer
modifications

Adapt ovl_getxattr_value() to be used from ovl_copy_xattr(), by allowing to pass it a pre-allocated buffer, which can be resized and by handling the ENODATA/EOPNOTSUPP return codes in the caller.

This replaces the retry loop in ovl_copy_xattr() with a single retry after resizing the buffer. If the value changed again by then, the underlying layer was modified, so return -EIO instead of retrying.

As a side effect, ovl_copy_up_meta_inode_data() now returns -EIO instead of -ERANGE in this case of underlying xattr size changes.

Reported-by Fahad Alharbi <[email protected]>
Tested-by Fahad Alharbi <[email protected]>
Suggested-by Miklos Szeredi <[email protected]>
Link https://lore.kernel.org/linux-fsdevel/CAJfpegsVoUyqy0dYkTvBGRZvgdv_nmzmCw_uF+LP-Vq3EhEkSg@mail.gmail.com/ open here
Fixes e4ad29fa0d22 ("ovl: use a minimal buffer in ovl_copy_xattr")
Cc [email protected]
Signed-off-by Amir Goldstein <[email protected]>
fs/overlayfs/copy_up.c +32 -36
index c220cb5d0b70..eee22581b14f 100644
@@ -72,6 +72,9 @@ static int ovl_copy_acl(struct ovl_fs *ofs, const struct path *path,
 	return err;
 }
 
+static ssize_t ovl_getxattr_value(const struct path *path, char *name,
+				  char **value, ssize_t *value_size);
+
 int ovl_copy_xattr(struct super_block *sb, const struct path *oldpath, struct dentry *new)
 {
 	struct dentry *old = oldpath->dentry;

@@ -129,34 +132,12 @@ int ovl_copy_xattr(struct super_block *sb, const struct path *oldpath, struct de
 			break;
 		}
 
-retry:
-		size = ovl_do_getxattr(oldpath, name, value, value_size);
-		if (size == -ERANGE) {
-			size = ovl_do_getxattr(oldpath, name, NULL, 0);
-			/* Nothing was read into value, so it must not be used */
-			if (size >= 0 && size <= value_size)
-				size = -EIO;
-		}
-
+		size = ovl_getxattr_value(oldpath, name, &value, &value_size);
 		if (size < 0) {
 			error = size;
 			break;
 		}
 
-		if (size > value_size) {
-			void *new;
-
-			new = kvmalloc(size, GFP_KERNEL);
-			if (!new) {
-				error = -ENOMEM;
-				break;
-			}
-			kvfree(value);
-			value = new;
-			value_size = size;
-			goto retry;
-		}
-
 		error = ovl_do_setxattr(OVL_FS(sb), new, name, value, size, 0);
 		if (error) {
 			if (error != -EOPNOTSUPP || ovl_must_copy_xattr(name))

@@ -1059,26 +1040,39 @@ static bool ovl_need_meta_copy_up(struct dentry *dentry, umode_t mode,
 	return true;
 }
 
-static ssize_t ovl_getxattr_value(const struct path *path, char *name, char **value)
+static ssize_t ovl_getxattr_value(const struct path *path, char *name,
+				  char **value, ssize_t *value_size)
 {
 	ssize_t res;
 	char *buf;
 
-	res = ovl_do_getxattr(path, name, NULL, 0);
-	if (res == -ENODATA || res == -EOPNOTSUPP)
-		res = 0;
+	res = ovl_do_getxattr(path, name, *value, *value_size);
+	if (res == -ERANGE) {
+		res = ovl_do_getxattr(path, name, NULL, 0);
+		/* Xattr changed underneath us? */
+		if (res >= 0 && res <= *value_size)
+			return -EIO;
+	}
 
-	if (res > 0) {
-		buf = kzalloc(res, GFP_KERNEL);
+	if (res > *value_size) {
+		buf = kvmalloc(res, GFP_KERNEL);
 		if (!buf)
 			return -ENOMEM;
 
 		res = ovl_do_getxattr(path, name, buf, res);
-		if (res < 0)
-			kfree(buf);
-		else
-			*value = buf;
+		if (res < 0) {
+			kvfree(buf);
+			/* Xattr changed underneath us? */
+			if (res == -ERANGE)
+				return -EIO;
+			return res;
+		}
+
+		kvfree(*value);
+		*value = buf;
+		*value_size = res;
 	}
+
 	return res;
 }
 

@@ -1089,7 +1083,7 @@ static int ovl_copy_up_meta_inode_data(struct ovl_copy_up_ctx *c)
 	struct path upperpath;
 	int err;
 	char *capability = NULL;
-	ssize_t cap_size;
+	ssize_t cap_size = 0;
 
 	ovl_path_upper(c->dentry, &upperpath);
 	if (WARN_ON(upperpath.dentry == NULL))

@@ -1097,7 +1091,9 @@ static int ovl_copy_up_meta_inode_data(struct ovl_copy_up_ctx *c)
 
 	if (c->stat.size) {
 		err = cap_size = ovl_getxattr_value(&upperpath, XATTR_NAME_CAPS,
-						    &capability);
+						    &capability, &cap_size);
+		if (cap_size == -ENODATA || cap_size == -EOPNOTSUPP)
+			cap_size = 0;
 		if (cap_size < 0)
 			goto out;
 	}

@@ -1127,7 +1123,7 @@ static int ovl_copy_up_meta_inode_data(struct ovl_copy_up_ctx *c)
 	ovl_clear_flag(OVL_VERIFIED_DIGEST, d_inode(c->dentry));
 	ovl_set_upperdata(d_inode(c->dentry));
 out_free:
-	kfree(capability);
+	kvfree(capability);
 out:
 	return err;
 }