[PATCH] ntfs: fix missing kstrdup() error check in ntfs_write_volume_label()

From: Zhan Xusheng

Date: Wed May 06 2026 - 03:14:55 EST


ntfs_write_volume_label() does not check the return value of
kstrdup(). If the allocation fails, vol->volume_label is set to
NULL while the function returns success. A subsequent
FS_IOC_GETFSLABEL then returns an empty string even though the
on-disk label was updated correctly.

Fix by allocating the new label before freeing the old one and
propagating -ENOMEM on failure. Also move mark_inode_dirty_sync()
into the success path so that it is not called when no metadata was
actually modified.

Fixes: 6251f0b0de7d ("ntfs: update super block operations")
Signed-off-by: Zhan Xusheng <zhanxusheng@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/ntfs/super.c | 12 ++++++++----
1 file changed, 8 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/ntfs/super.c b/fs/ntfs/super.c
index 22dc7865eca7..629fac580f95 100644
--- a/fs/ntfs/super.c
+++ b/fs/ntfs/super.c
@@ -425,7 +425,7 @@ int ntfs_write_volume_label(struct ntfs_volume *vol, char *label)
return uname_len;
}

- if (uname_len > NTFS_MAX_LABEL_LEN) {
+ if (uname_len > NTFS_MAX_LABEL_LEN) {
ntfs_error(vol->sb,
"Volume label is too long (max %d characters).",
NTFS_MAX_LABEL_LEN);
@@ -437,7 +437,7 @@ int ntfs_write_volume_label(struct ntfs_volume *vol, char *label)
ctx = ntfs_attr_get_search_ctx(vol_ni, NULL);
if (!ctx) {
ret = -ENOMEM;
- goto out;
+ goto out;
}

if (!ntfs_attr_lookup(AT_VOLUME_NAME, NULL, 0, 0, 0, NULL, 0,
@@ -450,11 +450,15 @@ int ntfs_write_volume_label(struct ntfs_volume *vol, char *label)
out:
mutex_unlock(&vol_ni->mrec_lock);
kvfree(uname);
- mark_inode_dirty_sync(vol->vol_ino);

if (ret >= 0) {
+ char *new_label = kstrdup(label, GFP_KERNEL);
+
+ if (!new_label)
+ return -ENOMEM;
kfree(vol->volume_label);
- vol->volume_label = kstrdup(label, GFP_KERNEL);
+ vol->volume_label = new_label;
+ mark_inode_dirty_sync(vol->vol_ino);
ret = 0;
}
return ret;
--
2.43.0