Re: [PATCH v2] ext4: fix a NULL pointer when validating an inode bitmap

[Baokun Li]

On 2022/12/1 12:32, Theodore Ts'o wrote:
> On Wed, Nov 30, 2022 at 11:20:11AM +0800, Baokun Li wrote:
> > > If we can protect against the problem by adding a check that has other
> > > value as well (such as making usre that when ext4_iget fetches a
> > > special inode, we enforce that i_links_couint must be > 0), maybe
> > > that's worth it.
> > Yes, but some special inodes allow i_links_couint to be zero,
> > such as the uninitialized boot load inode.
> That's a good point; but the only time when a special inode can
> validly have a zero i_links_count is when it has no blocks associated
> to it.  Otherwise, when the file system releases the inode using
> iput() when the file system is unmounted, all of the blocks will get
> released when the inode is evicted.  So we can have ext4_iget() allow
> fetching an inode if i_blocks[] is zeros.  But if it has any blocks
> and i_links_count is non-zero, something must be terribly wrong with
> that inode.
>
> Cheers,
>
> 					- Ted
Totally agree! That sounds good!

--
With Best Regards,
Baokun Li
.