In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: fix circular lock dependency in ext4_ext_migrate Move iput(tmp_inode) after ext4_writepages_up_write() to avoid a circular lock dependency between s_writepages_rwsem and sb_internal (freeze protection). The deadlock scenario: CPU0 (EXT4_IOC_MIGRATE) CPU1 (orphan cleanup during mount) ---- ---- ext4_ext_migrate() ext4_writepages_down_write() s_writepages_rwsem (write) ext4_evict_inode() sb_start_intwrite() [sb_internal] ... ext4_writepages() s_writepages_rwsem (read) [BLOCKED] iput(tmp_inode) ext4_evict_inode() sb_start_intwrite() [BLOCKED] The tmp_inode is a temporary inode with nlink=0 created solely for building the extent tree. Its eviction does not require s_writepages_rwsem protection, so deferring iput() until after releasing the rwsem is safe.
ext4: fix circular lock dependency in ext4_ext_migrate