[PATCH] splice: avoid stale f_pos writeback on error

From: Daehyeon Ko

Date: Sun Oct 18 2026 - 01:17:26 EST


do_splice() snapshots an implicit file position before calling the splice
helper. Since splice does not take f_pos_lock, another operation on the
same open file description can update f_pos while the helper is blocked.
If the helper then fails, the unconditional writeback restores the stale
snapshot.

For a directory without ->splice_read, a file-to-pipe splice fails with
-EINVAL. A concurrent directory mutation and getdents() call can advance
f_pos and refresh the filesystem's revalidation cookie before that failure
restores only the old position. The next ext2 readdir can then trust an
offset inside a directory entry and copy data from the adjacent page to
userspace.

Only update an implicit file position when splice returns a non-negative
result, matching read and write. Keep explicit offset updates unchanged.

Fixes: 7995bd287134 ("splice: don't pass the address of ->f_pos to methods")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Assisted-by: LLM
Signed-off-by: Daehyeon Ko <4ncienth@xxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/splice.c | 12 ++++++------
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/splice.c b/fs/splice.c
index 9d8f63e2fd1ab..96378d3e65580 100644
--- a/fs/splice.c
+++ b/fs/splice.c
@@ -1349,10 +1349,10 @@ ssize_t do_splice(struct file *in, loff_t *off_in, struct file *out,
ret = do_splice_from(ipipe, out, &offset, len, flags);
file_end_write(out);

- if (!off_out)
- out->f_pos = offset;
- else
+ if (off_out)
*off_out = offset;
+ else if (ret >= 0)
+ out->f_pos = offset;
} else if (opipe) {
if (off_out)
return -ESPIPE;
@@ -1373,10 +1373,10 @@ ssize_t do_splice(struct file *in, loff_t *off_in, struct file *out,

ret = splice_file_to_pipe(in, opipe, &offset, len, flags);

- if (!off_in)
- in->f_pos = offset;
- else
+ if (off_in)
*off_in = offset;
+ else if (ret >= 0)
+ in->f_pos = offset;
} else {
ret = -EINVAL;
}

base-commit: 58161ead29e50d70a317ea26b472e0c7508e69da
--
2.55.0