Linux Kernel XFS: Incorrect file size handling in exchange-range TO_EOF
Summary
A flaw in the XFS_IOC_EXCHANGE_RANGE ioctl with the TO_EOF flag in the Linux kernel's XFS filesystem sets file sizes incorrectly when a non-zero offset is used. A local user with a low-privileged account can leave shared blocks beyond EOF and then rewrite data that other files still share, which can lead to a reflink flag being cleared and data modification. The issue requires local access and an XFS volume with reflink and exchange-range enabled.
Affected
- Linux kernel from 6.10 onwards, up to the fixed versions listed below (per CVE record; verify per branch on kernel.org)
- Affected branches as listed by the CNA include 6.12, 6.18 and 7.2 before the fixed releases
- Exposure only on XFS filesystems with reflink and exchange-range support
Fixed in
- Linux 6.12.114 and later in the 6.12 series
- Linux 6.18.57 and later in the 6.18 series
- Linux 7.2.11 and later in the 7.2 series
- Distribution kernels: exact fixed build unknown, check your vendor advisory
Workaround
Unknown.
Exploitation
- No confirmed in-the-wild exploitation known.
- Unknown whether a public proof of concept exists.
- Not to be confused with CVE-2026-64600 (RefluXFS), a separate XFS reflink race with public exploit code.
Our recommendation
- Identify hosts that use XFS with reflink enabled (check with xfs_info).
- Apply the kernel update from your distribution or the stable branch listed above in the normal patch cycle.
- Prioritise multi-user hosts, shared servers, CI runners and systems where untrusted code runs locally.
- Reboot after installing the kernel update so that the fixed kernel is active.
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- Linux kernel stable commit 7dfb218c git.kernel.org
- Linux kernel stable commit 952b5c99 git.kernel.org
- Linux kernel stable commit b361d32b git.kernel.org
- Linux kernel stable commit cf32eb20 git.kernel.org
- Ubuntu CVE page CVE-2026-98974 ubuntu.com
- OSV CVE-2026-98974 osv.dev
- Manpage ioctl_xfs_exchange_range(2) man7.org
Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 1 Nov 2026, 22:35.
Original description (NVD)
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---
NVD references (4)
Sources
The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:
- NVD (NIST) – CVEs, rating (CVSS), affected products
- CISA KEV – vulnerabilities confirmed by CISA as actively exploited
- CISA Vulnrichment – CISA assessment (SSVC) in the official CVE record
- FIRST EPSS – probability of exploitation
- Microsoft MSRC – Patch Tuesday: vulnerabilities, severity, updates
- PoC-in-GitHub – public proof-of-concept repositories
- Metasploit (Rapid7) – modules of the Metasploit Framework
- Exploit-DB (OffSec) – archive of public exploits (links only)
- Patch days: official vendor pages (linked per vendor) (Vendor patch days)
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.
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