CVE-2025-38220

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

ext4: only dirty folios when data journaling regular files

fstest generic/388 occasionally reproduces a crash that looks as
follows:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
...
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 ext4_block_zero_page_range+0x30c/0x380 [ext4]
 ext4_truncate+0x436/0x440 [ext4]
 ext4_process_orphan+0x5d/0x110 [ext4]
 ext4_orphan_cleanup+0x124/0x4f0 [ext4]
 ext4_fill_super+0x262d/0x3110 [ext4]
 get_tree_bdev_flags+0x132/0x1d0
 vfs_get_tree+0x26/0xd0
 vfs_cmd_create+0x59/0xe0
 __do_sys_fsconfig+0x4ed/0x6b0
 do_syscall_64+0x82/0x170
 ...

This occurs when processing a symlink inode from the orphan list. The
partial block zeroing code in the truncate path calls
ext4_dirty_journalled_data() -> folio_mark_dirty(). The latter calls
mapping->a_ops->dirty_folio(), but symlink inodes are not assigned an
a_ops vector in ext4, hence the crash.

To avoid this problem, update the ext4_dirty_journalled_data() helper to
only mark the folio dirty on regular files (for which a_ops is
assigned). This also matches the journaling logic in the ext4_symlink()
creation path, where ext4_handle_dirty_metadata() is called directly.
ProviderTypeBase ScoreAtk. VectorAtk. ComplexityPriv. RequiredVector
NISTNIST
UNKNOWN
---
LinuxCNA
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Awaiting analysis
This vulnerability is currently awaiting analysis.
Base Score
CVSS 3.x
EPSS Score
Percentile: Unknown
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Debian Releases
Debian Product
Codename
linux
bullseye
5.10.223-1
not-affected
bookworm
6.1.137-1
not-affected
bullseye (security)
5.10.237-1
fixed
bookworm (security)
6.1.140-1
fixed
trixie
vulnerable
trixie (security)
vulnerable
sid
6.12.35-1
fixed