CVE-2019-15538 — An issue was discovered in xfs_setattr_nonsize in fs/xfs/xfs_iops

An issue was discovered in xfs_setattr_nonsize in fs/xfs/xfs_iops.c in the Linux kernel through 5.2.9. XFS partially wedges when a chgrp fails on account of being out of disk quota. xfs_setattr_nonsize is failing to unlock the ILOCK after the xfs_qm_vop_chown_reserve call fails.

01What is this vulnerability?

An issue was discovered in xfs_setattr_nonsize in fs/xfs/xfs_iops.c in the Linux kernel through 5.2.9. XFS partially wedges when a chgrp fails on account of being out of disk quota. xfs_setattr_nonsize is failing to unlock the ILOCK after the xfs_qm_vop_chown_reserve call fails. This is primarily a local DoS attack vector, but it might result as well in remote DoS if the XFS filesystem is…

02Affected products

Vendor	Product	Versions
n	a / n/a	n/a

03Active exploitation status

Not currently listed on the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities (KEV) catalog. EPSS is the best forward-looking signal — see the EPSS row above.

04Recommended remediation

• Patch to a fixed version listed in the vendor advisory (see references below).
• Mitigate with WAF rules, network egress filters, or feature flags where the patch is not yet available.
• Hunt historical logs for exploitation indicators — see Detection signatures below.

05Technical details

For the full vendor write-up, exploit chains, and reference implementations, see the references list in section 09.

06Detection signatures

Ask SARA in chat to draft a starting detection for this CVE in your stack of choice.

07Related CVEs

No directly-cited follow-up CVEs in the KB record for this advisory. The references list in section 09 carries the vendor cross-references.

08Timeline

• Published: 2019-08-25T15:25:26.000Z
• Last modified: 2024-08-05T00:49:13.729Z

09References

• lore.kernel.org — https://lore.kernel.org/linux-xfs/20190823035528.GH1037422%40magnolia/
• lore.kernel.org — https://lore.kernel.org/linux-xfs/20190823192433.GA8736%40eldamar.local
• github.com — https://github.com/torvalds/linux/commit/1fb254aa983bf190cfd685d40c64a480a9bafae…
• git.kernel.org — https://git.kernel.org/cgit/linux/kernel/git/torvalds/linux.git/commit/?id=1fb25…
• lists.fedoraproject.org — https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedorapro…
• lists.fedoraproject.org — https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedorapro…
• lists.debian.org — https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/09/msg00014.html
• lists.debian.org — https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2019/09/msg00015.html
• lists.opensuse.org — http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-09/msg00064.html
• lists.opensuse.org — http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2019-09/msg00066.html
• usn.ubuntu.com — https://usn.ubuntu.com/4144-1/
• security.netapp.com — https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20191004-0001/
• usn.ubuntu.com — https://usn.ubuntu.com/4147-1/
• support.f5.com — https://support.f5.com/csp/article/K32592426?utm_source=f5support&amp%3Butm_medi…