CVE-2025-40295
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
fscrypt: fix left shift underflow when inode->i_blkbits > PAGE_SHIFT
When simulating an nvme device on qemu with both logical_block_size and physical_block_size set to 8 KiB, an error trace appears during partition table reading at boot time. The issue is caused by inode->i_blkbits being larger than PAGE_SHIFT, which leads to a left shift of -1 and triggering a UBSAN warning.
[ 2.697306] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [ 2.697309] UBSAN: shift-out-of-bounds in fs/crypto/inline_crypt.c:336:37 [ 2.697311] shift exponent -1 is negative [ 2.697315] CPU: 3 UID: 0 PID: 274 Comm: (udev-worker) Not tainted 6.18.0-rc2+ #34 PREEMPT(voluntary) [ 2.697317] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.3-0-ga6ed6b701f0a-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 2.697320] Call Trace: [ 2.697324] [ 2.697325] dump_stack_lvl+0x76/0xa0 [ 2.697340] dump_stack+0x10/0x20 [ 2.697342] __ubsan_handle_shift_out_of_bounds+0x1e3/0x390 [ 2.697351] bh_get_inode_and_lblk_num.cold+0x12/0x94 [ 2.697359] fscrypt_set_bio_crypt_ctx_bh+0x44/0x90 [ 2.697365] submit_bh_wbc+0xb6/0x190 [ 2.697370] block_read_full_folio+0x194/0x270 [ 2.697371] ? __pfx_blkdev_get_block+0x10/0x10 [ 2.697375] ? __pfx_blkdev_read_folio+0x10/0x10 [ 2.697377] blkdev_read_folio+0x18/0x30 [ 2.697379] filemap_read_folio+0x40/0xe0 [ 2.697382] filemap_get_pages+0x5ef/0x7a0 [ 2.697385] ? mmap_region+0x63/0xd0 [ 2.697389] filemap_read+0x11d/0x520 [ 2.697392] blkdev_read_iter+0x7c/0x180 [ 2.697393] vfs_read+0x261/0x390 [ 2.697397] ksys_read+0x71/0xf0 [ 2.697398] __x64_sys_read+0x19/0x30 [ 2.697399] x64_sys_call+0x1e88/0x26a0 [ 2.697405] do_syscall_64+0x80/0x670 [ 2.697410] ? __x64_sys_newfstat+0x15/0x20 [ 2.697414] ? x64_sys_call+0x204a/0x26a0 [ 2.697415] ? do_syscall_64+0xb8/0x670 [ 2.697417] ? irqentry_exit_to_user_mode+0x2e/0x2a0 [ 2.697420] ? irqentry_exit+0x43/0x50 [ 2.697421] ? exc_page_fault+0x90/0x1b0 [ 2.697422] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e [ 2.697425] RIP: 0033:0x75054cba4a06 [ 2.697426] Code: 5d e8 41 8b 93 08 03 00 00 59 5e 48 83 f8 fc 75 19 83 e2 39 83 fa 08 75 11 e8 26 ff ff ff 66 0f 1f 44 00 00 48 8b 45 10 0f 05 <48> 8b 5d f8 c9 c3 0f 1f 40 00 f3 0f 1e fa 55 48 89 e5 48 83 ec 08 [ 2.697427] RSP: 002b:00007fff973723a0 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000000 [ 2.697430] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00005ea9a2c02760 RCX: 000075054cba4a06 [ 2.697432] RDX: 0000000000002000 RSI: 000075054c190000 RDI: 000000000000001b [ 2.697433] RBP: 00007fff973723c0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 [ 2.697434] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 0000000000000000 [ 2.697434] R13: 00005ea9a2c027c0 R14: 00005ea9a2be5608 R15: 00005ea9a2be55f0 [ 2.697436] [ 2.697436] ---[ end trace ]---
This situation can happen for block devices because when CONFIG_TRANSPARENT_HUGEPAGE is enabled, the maximum logical_block_size is 64 KiB. set_init_blocksize() then sets the block device inode->i_blkbits to 13, which is within this limit.
File I/O does not trigger this problem because for filesystems that do not support the FS_LBS feature, sb_set_blocksize() prevents sb->s_blocksize_bits from being larger than PAGE_SHIFT. During inode allocation, alloc_inode()->inode_init_always() assigns inode->i_blkbits from sb->s_blocksize_bits. Currently, only xfs_fs_type has the FS_LBS flag, and since xfs I/O paths do not reach submit_bh_wbc(), it does not hit the left-shift underflow issue.
[EB: use folio_pos() and consolidate the two shifts by i_blkbits]
AI Insight
LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.
A negative left-shift in fscrypt's inline encryption path when inode block size exceeds page size causes a UBSAN panic during boot on devices with large logical block sizes.
In the Linux kernel's fscrypt subsystem, the function bh_get_inode_and_lblk_num in fs/crypto/inline_crypt.c computes the number of blocks per page using the expression (1U << (PAGE_SHIFT - inode->i_blkbits)). When inode->i_blkbits is greater than PAGE_SHIFT (e.g., when a storage device exposes a logical block size of 8 KiB, making i_blkbits=13 while common page sizes yield PAGE_SHIFT=12), the subtraction becomes negative. The left-shift of -1 triggers a UBSAN 'shift-out-of-bounds' warning and a kernel panic [1].
The vulnerability is triggered during boot when the system reads partition tables. The blkdev_read_folio call path eventually invokes submit_bh_wbc and fscrypt_set_bio_crypt_ctx_bh, which calls the affected function. No special privileges or prior authentication are required; the issue surfaces automatically when a block device exposes a logical block size larger than the system page size and the filesystem uses fscrypt (notably, the simulation in QEMU with nvme shows logical_block_size=8192 and physical_block_size=8192) [1].
The direct impact is a kernel crash (UBSAN panic) that prevents the system from booting or enumerating block devices correctly. The crash can lead to denial of service, as the partition table reading fails mid-boot. No memory corruption or arbitrary code execution has been reported from this bug; the issue is confined to an undefined behavior-induced panic [1].
The Linux kernel stable tree has published a fix in commit 1e39da974ce621ed874c6d3aaf65ad14848c9f0d. The commit adjusts the computation to avoid the negative shift, ensuring correct handling of filesystem block sizes that are larger than the page size. Users should apply the patched kernel version. No known workarounds exist other than avoiding block devices with logical block sizes larger than the page size, which is impractical for hardware configurations that support such features [1].
AI Insight generated on May 19, 2026. Synthesized from this CVE's description and the cited reference URLs; citations are validated against the source bundle.
Affected products
2Patches
2dde026c5d2a51e39da974ce6Vulnerability mechanics
Generated on May 9, 2026. Inputs: CWE entries + fix-commit diffs from this CVE's patches. Citations validated against bundle.
References
2News mentions
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