CVE-2025-22120 ext4: goto right label 'out_mmap_sem' in ext4_setattr()
A logic error in the ext4 filesystem can cause a hung task and denial of service if inode attachment fails, requiring a kernel patch.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-22120?
CVE-2025-22120 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 Apr 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ext4: goto right label 'out_mmap_sem' in ext4_setattr()
Otherwise, if ext4_inode_attach_jinode() fails, a hung task will happen because filemap_invalidate_unlock() isn't called to unlock mapping->invalidate_lock. Like this:
EXT4-fs error (device sda) in ext4_setattr:5557: Out of memory INFO: task fsstress:374 blocked for more than 122 seconds. Not tainted 6.14.0-rc1-next-20250206-xfstests-dirty #726 "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. task:fsstress state:D stack:0 pid:374 tgid:374 ppid:373 task_flags:0x440140 flags:0x00000000 Call Trace: <TASK> __schedule+0x2c9/0x7f0 schedule+0x27/0xa0 schedule_preempt_disabled+0x15/0x30 rwsem_down_read_slowpath+0x278/0x4c0 down_read+0x59/0xb0 page_cache_ra_unbounded+0x65/0x1b0 filemap_get_pages+0x124/0x3e0 filemap_read+0x114/0x3d0 vfs_read+0x297/0x360 ksys_read+0x6c/0xe0 do_syscall_64+0x4b/0x110 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-22120?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-22120?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2025-22120 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-22120 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-22120, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-22120, GHSA-9vh4-w78f-qwqw, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-22120, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-22120.