Re: [PATCH] buffer: fix NULL dereference of bh->b_folio in __bh_submit()

From: Gong Shuai

Date: Sun Sep 06 2026 - 01:53:11 EST


> Commit a2c924c240e7 ("buffer: set BIO_COMPLETE_IN_TASK for dropbehind
> writeback") added an unconditional folio_test_dropbehind(bh->b_folio) in
> __bh_submit(). But jbd2 shadow buffers have a NULL b_folio since commit
> 5febcba29792 ("jbd2: point the shadow buffer at the frozen data
> directly") made them point b_data at the kmalloced frozen data rather
> than a folio. Submitting such a buffer during journal commit oopses:
>
> BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
> RIP: 0010:__bh_submit.constprop.0+0x87/0x120
> Call Trace:
> jbd2_journal_commit_transaction+0x932/0x1b10
> kjournald2+0xb2/0x250
>
> Hit by the ocfs2-testsuite fill_verify_holes test running with
> data=writeback.
>
> Dropbehind only applies to buffers backed by a folio, so skip the check
> when b_folio is NULL.
>
> Fixes: 5febcba29792 ("jbd2: point the shadow buffer at the frozen data directly")
> Tested-by: Srikanth Aithal <Srikanth.Aithal@xxxxxxx>
> Tested-by: Luca Weiss <luca.weiss@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> # sm7225-fairphone-fp4
> Reviewed-by: Jan Kara <jack@xxxxxxx>
> Signed-off-by: Joseph Qi <joseph.qi@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> ---


Hi Joseph,

Thanks for the fix.

On the OrangePi RV2 single-board (SpacemiT K1, riscv64) I hit the NULL
pointer dereference while testing other patches on top of linux-next
(next-20260904).

The jbd2/mmcblk1p3-N commit thread crashed in __bh_submit() when
submitting a journal shadow buffer whose b_folio is NULL. On this
board the crash reproduced reliably, roughly 3 minutes after boot,
under normal filesystem activity on the ext4 rootfs (buildroot-based
minimal userspace).

After applying this fix, the same kernel/board combination has been
running stably for several hours with no errors.

Tested-by: Gong Shuai <gsh517025@xxxxxxxxx> # OrangePi-RV2

Best regards,
Shuai


> fs/buffer.c | 3 ++-
> 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
>
> diff --git a/fs/buffer.c b/fs/buffer.c
> index 427d8a817cd5..f46fa6413032 100644
> --- a/fs/buffer.c
> +++ b/fs/buffer.c
> @@ -1106,7 +1106,8 @@ static void __bh_submit(struct buffer_head *bh, blk_opf_t opf,
>
> bio = bio_alloc(bh->b_bdev, 1, opf, GFP_NOIO);
>
> - if (folio_test_dropbehind(bh->b_folio) && op_is_write(opf))
> + if (bh->b_folio && folio_test_dropbehind(bh->b_folio) &&
> + op_is_write(opf))
> bio_set_flag(bio, BIO_COMPLETE_IN_TASK);
>
> if (IS_ENABLED(CONFIG_FS_ENCRYPTION))
> --
> 2.39.3
>