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authorKumar Kartikeya Dwivedi <memxor@gmail.com>2026-09-04 10:43:19 +0200
committerAlexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>2026-09-04 07:58:36 -0700
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tree58e8288fead484f6755ad0815fc74c3742663761 /Documentation/filesystems/ext4/attributes.rst
downloadlinux-stable-6668ed271eaefaa63e686bdfbedaeb7b8e492722.tar.gz
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selftests/bpf: Reject graph kptr use after RCU unlockgrafted
Add a sleepable verifier test that loads a graph-node local kptr in an explicit RCU read-side critical section, then passes its node to bpf_rbtree_remove() after the section ends. Before the verifier fix, the stale NON_OWN_REF flag makes the node look like a live borrowed reference and the program is accepted. After the fix, the pointer is demoted without NON_OWN_REF and the graph kfunc argument is rejected. Also exercise a graph kptr loaded while a spin lock provides implicit RCU protection. The pointer must be invalidated when the lock is released, which guards the required ordering between non-owning-reference invalidation and RCU demotion. Update the existing fault-protected load test state description. The post-unlock pointer no longer carries NON_OWN_REF, but remains readable because the load is rewritten to use BPF_PROBE_MEM. Signed-off-by: Kumar Kartikeya Dwivedi <memxor@gmail.com> Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20260904084325.52250-7-memxor@gmail.com Signed-off-by: Alexei Starovoitov <ast@kernel.org>
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+.. SPDX-License-Identifier: GPL-2.0
+
+Extended Attributes
+-------------------
+
+Extended attributes (xattrs) are typically stored in a separate data
+block on the disk and referenced from inodes via ``inode.i_file_acl*``.
+The first use of extended attributes seems to have been for storing file
+ACLs and other security data (selinux). With the ``user_xattr`` mount
+option it is possible for users to store extended attributes so long as
+all attribute names begin with “user”; this restriction seems to have
+disappeared as of Linux 3.0.
+
+There are two places where extended attributes can be found. The first
+place is between the end of each inode entry and the beginning of the
+next inode entry. For example, if inode.i_extra_isize = 28 and
+sb.inode_size = 256, then there are 256 - (128 + 28) = 100 bytes
+available for in-inode extended attribute storage. The second place
+where extended attributes can be found is in the block pointed to by
+``inode.i_file_acl``. As of Linux 3.11, it is not possible for this
+block to contain a pointer to a second extended attribute block (or even
+the remaining blocks of a cluster). In theory it is possible for each
+attribute's value to be stored in a separate data block, though as of
+Linux 3.11 the code does not permit this.
+
+Keys are generally assumed to be ASCIIZ strings, whereas values can be
+strings or binary data.
+
+Extended attributes, when stored after the inode, have a header
+``ext4_xattr_ibody_header`` that is 4 bytes long:
+
+.. list-table::
+ :widths: 8 8 24 40
+ :header-rows: 1
+
+ * - Offset
+ - Type
+ - Name
+ - Description
+ * - 0x0
+ - __le32
+ - h_magic
+ - Magic number for identification, 0xEA020000. This value is set by the
+ Linux driver, though e2fsprogs doesn't seem to check it(?)
+
+The beginning of an extended attribute block is in
+``struct ext4_xattr_header``, which is 32 bytes long:
+
+.. list-table::
+ :widths: 8 8 24 40
+ :header-rows: 1
+
+ * - Offset
+ - Type
+ - Name
+ - Description
+ * - 0x0
+ - __le32
+ - h_magic
+ - Magic number for identification, 0xEA020000.
+ * - 0x4
+ - __le32
+ - h_refcount
+ - Reference count.
+ * - 0x8
+ - __le32
+ - h_blocks
+ - Number of disk blocks used.
+ * - 0xC
+ - __le32
+ - h_hash
+ - Hash value of all attributes.
+ * - 0x10
+ - __le32
+ - h_checksum
+ - Checksum of the extended attribute block.
+ * - 0x14
+ - __u32
+ - h_reserved[3]
+ - Zero.
+
+The checksum is calculated against the FS UUID, the 64-bit block number
+of the extended attribute block, and the entire block (header +
+entries).
+
+Following the ``struct ext4_xattr_header`` or
+``struct ext4_xattr_ibody_header`` is an array of
+``struct ext4_xattr_entry``; each of these entries is at least 16 bytes
+long. When stored in an external block, the ``struct ext4_xattr_entry``
+entries must be stored in sorted order. The sort order is
+``e_name_index``, then ``e_name_len``, and finally ``e_name``.
+Attributes stored inside an inode do not need be stored in sorted order.
+
+.. list-table::
+ :widths: 8 8 24 40
+ :header-rows: 1
+
+ * - Offset
+ - Type
+ - Name
+ - Description
+ * - 0x0
+ - __u8
+ - e_name_len
+ - Length of name.
+ * - 0x1
+ - __u8
+ - e_name_index
+ - Attribute name index. There is a discussion of this below.
+ * - 0x2
+ - __le16
+ - e_value_offs
+ - Location of this attribute's value on the disk block where it is stored.
+ Multiple attributes can share the same value. For an inode attribute
+ this value is relative to the start of the first entry; for a block this
+ value is relative to the start of the block (i.e. the header).
+ * - 0x4
+ - __le32
+ - e_value_inum
+ - The inode where the value is stored. Zero indicates the value is in the
+ same block as this entry. This field is only used if the
+ INCOMPAT_EA_INODE feature is enabled.
+ * - 0x8
+ - __le32
+ - e_value_size
+ - Length of attribute value.
+ * - 0xC
+ - __le32
+ - e_hash
+ - Hash value of attribute name and attribute value. The kernel doesn't
+ update the hash for in-inode attributes, so for that case this value
+ must be zero, because e2fsck validates any non-zero hash regardless of
+ where the xattr lives.
+ * - 0x10
+ - char
+ - e_name[e_name_len]
+ - Attribute name. Does not include trailing NULL.
+
+Attribute values can follow the end of the entry table. There appears to
+be a requirement that they be aligned to 4-byte boundaries. The values
+are stored starting at the end of the block and grow towards the
+xattr_header/xattr_entry table. When the two collide, the overflow is
+put into a separate disk block. If the disk block fills up, the
+filesystem returns -ENOSPC.
+
+The first four fields of the ``ext4_xattr_entry`` are set to zero to
+mark the end of the key list.
+
+Attribute Name Indices
+~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
+
+Logically speaking, extended attributes are a series of key=value pairs.
+The keys are assumed to be NULL-terminated strings. To reduce the amount
+of on-disk space that the keys consume, the beginning of the key string
+is matched against the attribute name index. If a match is found, the
+attribute name index field is set, and matching string is removed from
+the key name. Here is a map of name index values to key prefixes:
+
+.. list-table::
+ :widths: 16 64
+ :header-rows: 1
+
+ * - Name Index
+ - Key Prefix
+ * - 0
+ - (no prefix)
+ * - 1
+ - “user.”
+ * - 2
+ - “system.posix_acl_access”
+ * - 3
+ - “system.posix_acl_default”
+ * - 4
+ - “trusted.”
+ * - 6
+ - “security.”
+ * - 7
+ - “system.” (inline_data only?)
+ * - 8
+ - “system.richacl” (SuSE kernels only?)
+
+For example, if the attribute key is “user.fubar”, the attribute name
+index is set to 1 and the “fubar” name is recorded on disk.
+
+POSIX ACLs
+~~~~~~~~~~
+
+POSIX ACLs are stored in a reduced version of the Linux kernel (and
+libacl's) internal ACL format. The key difference is that the version
+number is different (1) and the ``e_id`` field is only stored for named
+user and group ACLs.