Linux Kernel up to 6.12.113/6.18.56/7.2.10 XFS xmi_can_exchange_reflink_flags information disclosure

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2.7	$0-$5k	1.17

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as problematic has been identified in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.113/6.18.56/7.2.10. This vulnerability affects the function xmi_can_exchange_reflink_flags of the component XFS. Such manipulation leads to information disclosure. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2026-98974. The attack can only be performed from a local environment. No exploit is available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.113/6.18.56/7.2.10. It has been rated as problematic. Affected by this issue is the function xmi_can_exchange_reflink_flags of the component XFS. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a information disclosure vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-200. The product exposes sensitive information to an actor that is not explicitly authorized to have access to that information. Impacted is confidentiality. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: xfs: fix exchange-range-to-eof file size exchange Norbert Szetei posted a patch containing an incomplete description of a bug in XFS_IOC_EXCHANGE_RANGE's TO_EOF flag. The bug tricks exchange-range into modifying a file so that it has shared blocks starting beyond EOF, which is never allowed because files never have written data beyond EOF, and you can only share written data blocks. This is key to all the incorrect behavior that follows. Eventually I got from Norbert a description of what's going wrong: > Fair. Here it is with physical block numbers, 4k blocks. peer is the file > that gets rewritten and file1 is the one that ends up with the flag > cleared. > > Start, nothing shared: > > peer size 4096 -> [100] > file1 size 12288 -> [200] [201] [202] > donor1 size 4096 -> [300] > donor2 size 4096 -> [400] > > 1. FICLONERANGE peer's block into file1's middle slot: > > peer size 4096 -> [100] > file1 size 12288 -> [200] [100] [202] reflink flag set > ^^^^^ both files own block 100 > > 2. XFS_IOC_EXCHANGE_RANGE file1 against donor1, file1_offset 0, > file2_offset 8192, length 0, TO_EOF. One block is exchanged, and the sizes > are exchanged with it: > > file1 size 4096 -> [200] [100] [300] reflink flag set > ^^^^^^^^^^^ still owned, now past the size > donor1 size 12288 -> [202] > > file1 says it is one block long while it still owns three. Nothing was > unmapped. file2_offset is block 2, so this exchange cannot clear a flag. > > 3. XFS_IOC_EXCHANGE_RANGE file1 against donor2, both offsets 0, length 4096. > By i_disk_size this is two one-block files exchanging everything, so > xmi_can_exchange_reflink_flags() agrees and the flag is cleared: > > file1 size 4096 -> [400] [100] [300] reflink flag CLEARED > donor2 size 4096 -> [200] > > Block 100 is still shared with peer. > > 4. pwrite(file1, 4096, 4096), which is file1's second slot, block 100. > xfs_is_cow_inode(file1) is false, so no CoW: > > peer size 4096 -> [100] same block, new contents > > Block 100 is the only one that matters here. PoC below, it reads a file > called peer in the current directory. The filesystem needs reflink and > exchange-range, which mkfs.xfs 7.x turns on by default. So yes, TO_EOF is screwing up the file size even if it's actually exchanging the data block correctly. The following is the intended behavior of XFS_EXCHANGE_RANGE_TO_EOF, as described by its manpage: "Ignore the length parameter. All bytes in file1_fd from file1_offset to EOF are moved to file2_fd, and file2's size is set to (file2_offset+(file1_length-file1_offset)). Meanwhile, all bytes in file2 from file2_offset to EOF are moved to file1 and file1's size is set to (file1_offset+(file2_length-file2_offset))." In other words, if we only exchange a portion of the file data, then we should only exchange the portion of the file size that relates to the exchanged data. Unfortunately, the code swaps the ondisk file size and the incore file sizes, which is incorrect if the caller passes in a nonzero offset. Having confused the file sizes, the PoC uses a second exchange-range call on what looks like a non-reflinked single-block file. Because the file size is set incorrectly, exchange-range thinks it's exchanging the full contents of two files and clears the reflink flag on the broken file. That enables an extending write of the broken file to rewrite the shared block that's just past EOF. This has become known colloquially as refluxfs. Once the file sizes are set correctly, the second exchange-range no longer thinks that it's doing a full-contents swap, so it won't clear the reflink flag on either of its file arguments. Norbert followed up to an earlier version of this patch with a second complaint about us not handling the i_disk_size state correctly: > The offsets are bounded against the incore i_size but subtracted from > ---truncated---

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-98974 since 09/25/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack needs to be approached locally. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1592.

Upgrading to version 6.12.114, 6.18.57 or 7.2.11 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch b361d32b884f8ddcb9bad5d99b69eece648f8e43/cf32eb20dfacfd2e92ce86ba1fece9ae5f98a7d8/952b5c99a840c2bff1f6645fd5e06e1db6ec2623/7dfb218c829c1acb626e0fe92c5fddb9a26a03e9 is able to eliminate this problem. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.12.113
• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.18.22
• 6.18.23
• 6.18.24
• 6.18.25
• 6.18.26
• 6.18.27
• 6.18.28
• 6.18.29
• 6.18.30
• 6.18.31
• 6.18.32
• 6.18.33
• 6.18.34
• 6.18.35
• 6.18.36
• 6.18.37
• 6.18.38
• 6.18.39
• 6.18.40
• 6.18.41
• 6.18.42
• 6.18.43
• 6.18.44
• 6.18.45
• 6.18.46
• 6.18.47
• 6.18.48
• 6.18.49
• 6.18.50
• 6.18.51
• 6.18.52
• 6.18.53
• 6.18.54
• 6.18.55
• 6.18.56
• 7.2.0
• 7.2.1
• 7.2.2
• 7.2.3
• 7.2.4
• 7.2.5
• 7.2.6
• 7.2.7
• 7.2.8
• 7.2.9
• 7.2.10

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv3info

VulDB Meta Base Score: 2.8
VulDB Meta Temp Score: 2.7

VulDB Base Score: 2.8
VulDB Temp Score: 2.7
VulDB Vector: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

CVSSv2info

AV	AC	Au	C	I	A
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳
💳	💳	💳	💳	💳	💳

Vector	Complexity	Authentication	Confidentiality	Integrity	Availability
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

VulDB Base Score: 🔒
VulDB Temp Score: 🔒
VulDB Reliability: 🔍

Exploitinginfo

Class: Information disclosure
CWE: CWE-200 / CWE-284 / CWE-266
CAPEC: 🔒
ATT&CK: 🔒

Physical: Partially
Local: Yes
Remote: Partially

Availability: 🔒
Status: Not defined
Price Prediction: 🔍
Current Price Estimation: 🔒

0-Day	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock
Today	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock	Unlock

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Interest: 🔍
Active Actors: 🔍
Active APT Groups: 🔍

Countermeasuresinfo

Recommended: Upgrade
Status: 🔍

0-Day Time: 🔒

Upgrade: Kernel 6.12.114/6.18.57/7.2.11
Patch: b361d32b884f8ddcb9bad5d99b69eece648f8e43/cf32eb20dfacfd2e92ce86ba1fece9ae5f98a7d8/952b5c99a840c2bff1f6645fd5e06e1db6ec2623/7dfb218c829c1acb626e0fe92c5fddb9a26a03e9

Timelineinfo

09/25/2026 CVE reserved
10/23/2026 +28 days Advisory disclosed
10/23/2026 +0 days VulDB entry created
10/23/2026 +0 days VulDB entry last update

Sourcesinfo

Vendor: kernel.org

Advisory: git.kernel.org
Status: Confirmed

CVE: CVE-2026-98974 (🔒)
GCVE (CVE): GCVE-0-2026-98974
GCVE (VulDB): GCVE-100-425780

Entryinfo

Created: 10/23/2026 15:03
Changes: 10/23/2026 15:03 (59)
Complete: 🔍
Cache ID: 216::103

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Discussion

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