[PATCH 1/2] ext4: fix readdir position truncation on 32-bit kernels

Zhan Xusheng <[email protected]> Thu, 6 Aug 2026 10:20:43 +0800
Newsgroups org.kernel.vger.linux-ext4,dev.linux.lists.ocfs2-devel,org.kernel.vger.linux-kernel,org.kernel.vger.stable
Message-ID <[email protected]>
In ext4_readdir(), the directory cookie position is rebuilt with

	ctx->pos = (ctx->pos & ~(sb->s_blocksize - 1)) | offset;

`ctx->pos` is loff_t (signed 64-bit), while `sb->s_blocksize` is
unsigned long.  On 32-bit kernels unsigned long is 32-bit, so the mask

	~(sb->s_blocksize - 1)

is computed as a 32-bit unsigned value (e.g. 0xfffff000 for a 4 KiB
block size).  In the AND expression with the 64-bit `ctx->pos`, that
unsigned operand is zero-extended to 64 bits per the usual arithmetic
conversions, yielding 0x00000000fffff000.  The high 32 bits of
`ctx->pos` are silently cleared, even though directory size is
allowed to exceed 4 GiB on 32-bit (s_maxbytes for ext4 is many TiB).

When readdir() crosses the 4 GiB boundary on a 32-bit kernel the
position is reset back into the first 4 GiB block, making the
re-validation path re-enumerate already-returned dirents indefinitely.

ext4_readdir() reaches this linear path for non-indexed directories, and
as the fallback after ext4_dx_readdir() returns ERR_BAD_DX_DIR, so a
directory large enough to cross 4 GiB can hit it.

This is the same class of bug that commit 3dce5bb82c97 ("exfat: Fix
bitwise operation having different size") fixed in exfat.  Cast the
operand to loff_t so the mask is 64-bit before the AND:

	ctx->pos = (ctx->pos & ~((loff_t)sb->s_blocksize - 1)) | offset;

64-bit kernels are unaffected (unsigned long is 64-bit there, no
truncation occurs).

The truncation was confirmed with a freestanding 32-bit test program
mirroring the kernel expression: input ctx->pos = 0x100000100 produces
output 0x100 with the unfixed expression and 0x100000100 with the
cast.

Fixes: ac27a0ec112a ("[PATCH] ext4: initial copy of files from ext3")
Cc: [email protected]
Signed-off-by: Zhan Xusheng <[email protected]>
---
 fs/ext4/dir.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/fs/ext4/dir.c b/fs/ext4/dir.c
index 17edd678fa87..8113f43d4989 100644
--- a/fs/ext4/dir.c
+++ b/fs/ext4/dir.c
@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ static int ext4_readdir(struct file *file, struct dir_context *ctx)
 							    sb->s_blocksize);
 			}
 			offset = i;
-			ctx->pos = (ctx->pos & ~(sb->s_blocksize - 1))
+			ctx->pos = (ctx->pos & ~((loff_t)sb->s_blocksize - 1))
 				| offset;
 			info->cookie = inode_query_iversion(inode);
 		}
-- 
2.43.0