In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

nilfs2: fix NULL pointer dereference in nilfs_palloc_commit_free_entry()

Syzbot reported a null-ptr-deref bug:

NILFS (loop0): segctord starting. Construction interval = 5 seconds, CP
frequency < 30 seconds
general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address
0xdffffc0000000002: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN
KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000010-0x0000000000000017]
CPU: 1 PID: 3603 Comm: segctord Not tainted
6.1.0-rc2-syzkaller-00105-gb229b6ca5abb #0
Hardware name: Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google
10/11/2022
RIP: 0010:nilfs_palloc_commit_free_entry+0xe5/0x6b0
fs/nilfs2/alloc.c:608
Code: 00 00 00 00 fc ff df 80 3c 02 00 0f 85 cd 05 00 00 48 b8 00 00 00
00 00 fc ff df 4c 8b 73 08 49 8d 7e 10 48 89 fa 48 c1 ea 03 <80> 3c 02
00 0f 85 26 05 00 00 49 8b 46 10 be a6 00 00 00 48 c7 c7
RSP: 0018:ffffc90003dff830 EFLAGS: 00010212
RAX: dffffc0000000000 RBX: ffff88802594e218 RCX: 000000000000000d
RDX: 0000000000000002 RSI: 0000000000002000 RDI: 0000000000000010
RBP: ffff888071880222 R08: 0000000000000005 R09: 000000000000003f
R10: 000000000000000d R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff888071880158
R13: ffff88802594e220 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000004
FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8880b9b00000(0000)
knlGS:0000000000000000
CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 00007fb1c08316a8 CR3: 0000000018560000 CR4: 0000000000350ee0
Call Trace:
<TASK>
nilfs_dat_commit_free fs/nilfs2/dat.c:114 [inline]
nilfs_dat_commit_end+0x464/0x5f0 fs/nilfs2/dat.c:193
nilfs_dat_commit_update+0x26/0x40 fs/nilfs2/dat.c:236
nilfs_btree_commit_update_v+0x87/0x4a0 fs/nilfs2/btree.c:1940
nilfs_btree_commit_propagate_v fs/nilfs2/btree.c:2016 [inline]
nilfs_btree_propagate_v fs/nilfs2/btree.c:2046 [inline]
nilfs_btree_propagate+0xa00/0xd60 fs/nilfs2/btree.c:2088
nilfs_bmap_propagate+0x73/0x170 fs/nilfs2/bmap.c:337
nilfs_collect_file_data+0x45/0xd0 fs/nilfs2/segment.c:568
nilfs_segctor_apply_buffers+0x14a/0x470 fs/nilfs2/segment.c:1018
nilfs_segctor_scan_file+0x3f4/0x6f0 fs/nilfs2/segment.c:1067
nilfs_segctor_collect_blocks fs/nilfs2/segment.c:1197 [inline]
nilfs_segctor_collect fs/nilfs2/segment.c:1503 [inline]
nilfs_segctor_do_construct+0x12fc/0x6af0 fs/nilfs2/segment.c:2045
nilfs_segctor_construct+0x8e3/0xb30 fs/nilfs2/segment.c:2379
nilfs_segctor_thread_construct fs/nilfs2/segment.c:2487 [inline]
nilfs_segctor_thread+0x3c3/0xf30 fs/nilfs2/segment.c:2570
kthread+0x2e4/0x3a0 kernel/kthread.c:376
ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:306
</TASK>
…

If DAT metadata file is corrupted on disk, there is a case where
req->pr_desc_bh is NULL and blocknr is 0 at nilfs_dat_commit_end() during
a b-tree operation that cascadingly updates ancestor nodes of the b-tree,
because nilfs_dat_commit_alloc() for a lower level block can initialize
the blocknr on the same DAT entry between nilfs_dat_prepare_end() and
nilfs_dat_commit_end().

If this happens, nilfs_dat_commit_end() calls nilfs_dat_commit_free()
without valid buffer heads in req->pr_desc_bh and req->pr_bitmap_bh, and
causes the NULL pointer dereference above in
nilfs_palloc_commit_free_entry() function, which leads to a crash.

Fix this by adding a NULL check on req->pr_desc_bh and req->pr_bitmap_bh
before nilfs_palloc_commit_free_entry() in nilfs_dat_commit_free().

This also calls nilfs_error() in that case to notify that there is a fatal
flaw in the filesystem metadata and prevent further operations.