# CVE-2026-92503: ext4: fix ABBA deadlock in ext4_xattr_inode_cache_find() CVE-2026-92503 is fixed in 12 products on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-92503, released September 23, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: Routine. - Web page: https://patchblox.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-92503 - Priority: Routine - CVSS: 5.5 (Moderate) - EPSS: 0.0022 - CISA KEV: not listed - Exploited (vendor report): no - Publicly disclosed: no - Published: Sep 17, 2026 - Vendor advisory: https://msrc.microsoft.com/update-guide/vulnerability/CVE-2026-92503 ## Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: fix ABBA deadlock in ext4_xattr_inode_cache_find() Syzbot/stress-ng reported an ABBA deadlock in ext4 when exercising concurrent xattr workloads (using the ea_inode mount/format option). The deadlock occurs between the running transaction and the eviction thread: - Task 1 (stress-ng): Holds a reference to a shared mbcache_entry (ce) and calls ext4_xattr_inode_cache_find() -> ext4_iget() to retrieve the corresponding EA inode. Since the EA inode is currently being evicted, ext4_iget() blocks in __wait_on_freeing_inode() waiting for eviction to complete. - Task 2 (eviction thread): Currently evicting the same EA inode in ext4_evict_ea_inode(). It calls mb_cache_entry_wait_unused(oe) which blocks waiting for Task 1 to release the reference to the mbcache_entry. To break this deadlock, implement a new ext4_iget() configuration flag named EXT4_IGET_NOWAIT. When set, perform a non-blocking lookup of the inode via VFS's find_inode_nowait() API. If the inode is currently being evicted (marked with I_FREEING or I_WILL_FREE) or created (I_CREATING), or if it is not present in the VFS inode cache (cache miss), simply skip it (returning -ENOENT) rather than waiting for eviction/creation to complete, breaking the ABBA cycle. Since we return -ENOENT immediately on a cache miss, we never attempt to allocate a new inode or call iget_locked(), completely eliminating any TOCTOU race window. If the returned inode is I_NEW, wait for its initialization to clear via wait_on_new_inode(). If initialization fails and the inode is unhashed during wait_on_new_inode() waking up (e.g., due to an I/O read error in another thread), safely drop the reference and return -ENOENT. This unhashed check is executed unconditionally on all cache-hit pathways to properly handle concurrent initialization failures. Finally, standard validation checks (including is_bad_inode, EXT4_EA_INODE_FL, file_acl, and xattr flags) are executed as normal inside check_igot_inode() to fully guarantee VFS-layer safety. In ext4_xattr_inode_cache_find(), invoke ext4_iget() with the new EXT4_IGET_NOWAIT flag to perform the non-blocking cache search. ## Where it's fixed | Platform | Product | Fixed in | Fix | Released | |---|---|---|---|---| | Linux | kernel-64kb sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1 | [SUSE-SU-2026:4706-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2026-4706-1.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-azure sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1 | [SUSE-SU-2026:4706-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2026-4706-1.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-default sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1 | [SUSE-SU-2026:4706-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2026-4706-1.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-default-base sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1.150700.17.47.1 | [SUSE-SU-2026:4706-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2026-4706-1.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-docs sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1 | [SUSE-SU-2026:4706-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2026-4706-1.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP7-RT_Update_21 sles 15.7 | 1-150700.1.3.1 | [SUSE-SU-2026:4640-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2026-4640-1.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP7_Update_22 sles 15.7 | 1-150700.15.3.1 | [SUSE-SU-2026:4706-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2026-4706-1.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-obs-build sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1 | [SUSE-SU-2026:4706-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2026-4706-1.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-source sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1 | [SUSE-SU-2026:4706-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2026-4706-1.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-syms sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1 | [SUSE-SU-2026:4706-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2026-4706-1.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | kernel-zfcpdump sles 15.7 | 6.4.0-150700.53.84.1 | [SUSE-SU-2026:4706-1](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/suse-su-2026-4706-1.md) | Nov 7, 2026 | | Linux | linux Debian 13.5 (trixie) | 6.12.115-2 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2026-92503](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2026-92503.md) | Sep 23, 2026 | | Linux | linux Debian 14 | 7.2.6-1 | [DEBIAN-CVE-2026-92503](https://patchblox.com/security/data/fix/linux/debian-cve-2026-92503.md) | Sep 23, 2026 | --- Data as of 2026-11-08T06:59:42Z UTC. 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