[PATCH 6.1.y 1/2] ext4: fix NULL folio dereference in mballoc

From: Elliot Berman

Date: Mon Nov 02 2026 - 10:17:05 EST


In 6.1, __filemap_get_folio() returns NULL on failure. The backported
folio conversion of mballoc keeps the original IS_ERR() checks, so they
are always false here. The fast-path lookup in ext4_mb_load_buddy_gfp()
has no FGP_CREAT and returns NULL whenever the bitmap or buddy page of
an initialised group has been evicted from the page cache, e.g. by
drop_caches or memory pressure. The next block allocation from that
group then oopses under ext4_mb_regular_allocator().

$ echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches, in 0.51 seconds)
$ dd if=/dev/zero of=/mnt/b0 bs=1M count=4 conv=fsync
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000000
PGD 5f19067 P4D 0
Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI
CPU: 0 PID: 908 Comm: dd Not tainted 6.1.191 #1-NixOS
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.17.0-0-gb52ca86e094d-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:ext4_mb_load_buddy_gfp (fs/ext4/mballoc.c:1536 (discriminator 1)) ext4
Call Trace:
<TASK>
ext4_mb_regular_allocator (fs/ext4/mballoc.c:1641 fs/ext4/mballoc.c:2798) ext4
ext4_mb_new_blocks (fs/ext4/mballoc.c:5793) ext4
? ext4_find_extent (fs/ext4/extents.c:925) ext4
ext4_ext_map_blocks (fs/ext4/extents.c:4369) ext4
...

Check for NULL instead and return -ENOMEM, as failures did before the
conversion.

Fixes: d34e4fd4e73f ("ext4: convert bd_bitmap_page to bd_bitmap_folio")
Fixes: 862483175d3d ("ext4: convert bd_buddy_page to bd_buddy_folio")
Reported-by: Tom Bereknyei <tomberek@xxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Elliot Berman <elliotjb@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/ext4/mballoc.c | 28 ++++++++++++++--------------
1 file changed, 14 insertions(+), 14 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/ext4/mballoc.c b/fs/ext4/mballoc.c
index e77d56c533c0..d0b276ce9401 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/mballoc.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/mballoc.c
@@ -1375,8 +1375,8 @@ static int ext4_mb_get_buddy_page_lock(struct super_block *sb,
poff = block % blocks_per_page;
folio = __filemap_get_folio(inode->i_mapping, pnum,
FGP_LOCK | FGP_ACCESSED | FGP_CREAT, gfp);
- if (IS_ERR(folio))
- return PTR_ERR(folio);
+ if (!folio)
+ return -ENOMEM;
BUG_ON(folio->mapping != inode->i_mapping);
e4b->bd_bitmap_folio = folio;
e4b->bd_bitmap = folio_address(folio) + (poff * sb->s_blocksize);
@@ -1389,8 +1389,8 @@ static int ext4_mb_get_buddy_page_lock(struct super_block *sb,
/* blocks_per_page == 1, hence we need another page for the buddy */
folio = __filemap_get_folio(inode->i_mapping, block + 1,
FGP_LOCK | FGP_ACCESSED | FGP_CREAT, gfp);
- if (IS_ERR(folio))
- return PTR_ERR(folio);
+ if (!folio)
+ return -ENOMEM;
BUG_ON(folio->mapping != inode->i_mapping);
e4b->bd_buddy_folio = folio;
return 0;
@@ -1533,7 +1533,7 @@ ext4_mb_load_buddy_gfp(struct super_block *sb, ext4_group_t group,

/* Avoid locking the folio in the fast path ... */
folio = __filemap_get_folio(inode->i_mapping, pnum, FGP_ACCESSED, 0);
- if (IS_ERR(folio) || !folio_test_uptodate(folio) || folio_test_locked(folio)) {
+ if (!folio || !folio_test_uptodate(folio) || folio_test_locked(folio)) {
/*
* folio_test_locked is employed to detect ongoing folio
* migrations, since concurrent migrations can lead to
@@ -1543,11 +1543,11 @@ ext4_mb_load_buddy_gfp(struct super_block *sb, ext4_group_t group,
* try to get the folio with lock in both cases to avoid
* concurrency.
*/
- if (!IS_ERR(folio))
+ if (folio)
folio_put(folio);
folio = __filemap_get_folio(inode->i_mapping, pnum,
FGP_LOCK | FGP_ACCESSED | FGP_CREAT, gfp);
- if (!IS_ERR(folio)) {
+ if (folio) {
if (WARN_RATELIMIT(folio->mapping != inode->i_mapping,
"ext4: bitmap's mapping != inode->i_mapping\n")) {
/* should never happen */
@@ -1567,8 +1567,8 @@ ext4_mb_load_buddy_gfp(struct super_block *sb, ext4_group_t group,
folio_unlock(folio);
}
}
- if (IS_ERR(folio)) {
- ret = PTR_ERR(folio);
+ if (!folio) {
+ ret = -ENOMEM;
goto err;
}
if (!folio_test_uptodate(folio)) {
@@ -1585,12 +1585,12 @@ ext4_mb_load_buddy_gfp(struct super_block *sb, ext4_group_t group,
poff = block % blocks_per_page;

folio = __filemap_get_folio(inode->i_mapping, pnum, FGP_ACCESSED, 0);
- if (IS_ERR(folio) || !folio_test_uptodate(folio) || folio_test_locked(folio)) {
- if (!IS_ERR(folio))
+ if (!folio || !folio_test_uptodate(folio) || folio_test_locked(folio)) {
+ if (folio)
folio_put(folio);
folio = __filemap_get_folio(inode->i_mapping, pnum,
FGP_LOCK | FGP_ACCESSED | FGP_CREAT, gfp);
- if (!IS_ERR(folio)) {
+ if (folio) {
if (WARN_RATELIMIT(folio->mapping != inode->i_mapping,
"ext4: buddy bitmap's mapping != inode->i_mapping\n")) {
/* should never happen */
@@ -1609,8 +1609,8 @@ ext4_mb_load_buddy_gfp(struct super_block *sb, ext4_group_t group,
folio_unlock(folio);
}
}
- if (IS_ERR(folio)) {
- ret = PTR_ERR(folio);
+ if (!folio) {
+ ret = -ENOMEM;
goto err;
}
if (!folio_test_uptodate(folio)) {

--
2.54.0