[PATCH v2] ntfs: reject invalid sectors_per_cluster in the boot sector
From: Dennis Tighe
Date: Wed Aug 26 2026 - 01:09:48 EST
is_boot_sector_ntfs() checks the boot sector's sectors_per_cluster field
with a range test that rejects 0x81..0xf3 but accepts 0 and other
non-power-of-two counts. A zero value reaches parse_ntfs_boot_sector():
sectors_per_cluster_bits = ffs(sectors_per_cluster) - 1;
...
vol->cluster_size = vol->sector_size << sectors_per_cluster_bits;
ffs(0) is 0, so sectors_per_cluster_bits becomes (unsigned)-1 and the
shift is undefined:
UBSAN: shift-out-of-bounds in fs/ntfs/super.c:673:39
shift exponent 4294967295 is too large for 32-bit type 'int'
This change rejects any non-power-of-two value, since it feeds the
aforementioned shift via ffs() - 1, which only yields the correct shift for a
power of two.
Fixes: 6251f0b0de7d ("ntfs: update super block operations")
Assisted-by: Claude:claude-opus-4-8
Signed-off-by: Dennis Tighe <dennis.tighe@xxxxxxxxx>
---
Changes in v2:
- Check that sectors_per_cluster is a power of two rather than only
rejecting zero, per Hyunchul Lee's review.
is_boot_sector_ntfs() is where the driver decides an image is NTFS, so
rejecting a bad geometry there stops it before parse_ntfs_boot_sector()
computes ffs() - 1. Reached by mounting the image.
Built ntfs-next with KASAN+UBSAN and tested: sectors_per_cluster = 0 and a
non-power-of-two value (e.g. 3) are both rejected with no UBSAN, and a valid
volume still mounts (create/write/mkdir/rename/unlink smoke passes).
A reproducer is available on request.
fs/ntfs/super.c | 4 ++--
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)
diff --git a/fs/ntfs/super.c b/fs/ntfs/super.c
index 2fd7db672..76f62dac2 100644
--- a/fs/ntfs/super.c
+++ b/fs/ntfs/super.c
@@ -557,8 +557,8 @@ static bool is_boot_sector_ntfs(const struct super_block *sb,
* Check sectors per cluster value is valid and the cluster size
* is not above the maximum (2MB).
*/
- if (b->bpb.sectors_per_cluster > 0x80 &&
- b->bpb.sectors_per_cluster < 0xf4)
+ if (b->bpb.sectors_per_cluster < 0xf4 &&
+ !is_power_of_2(b->bpb.sectors_per_cluster))
goto not_ntfs;
/* Check reserved/unused fields are really zero. */