From: Ryusuke Konishi When ecryptfs_lookup() is called against special files, eCryptfs generates the following errors because it tries to treat them like regular eCryptfs files. Error opening lower file for lower_dentry [0xffff810233a6f150], lower_mnt [0xffff810235bb4c80], and flags [0x8000] Error opening lower_file to read header region Error attempting to read the [user.ecryptfs] xattr from the lower file; return value = [-95] Valid metadata not found in header region or xattr region; treating file as unencrypted For instance, the problem can be reproduced by the steps below. # mkdir /root/crypt /mnt/crypt # mount -t ecryptfs /root/crypt /mnt/crypt # mknod /mnt/crypt/c0 c 0 0 # umount /mnt/crypt # mount -t ecryptfs /root/crypt /mnt/crypt # ls -l /mnt/crypt This patch fixes it by adding a check similar to directories and symlinks. Signed-off-by: Ryusuke Konishi Acked-by: Michael Halcrow Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton --- fs/ecryptfs/inode.c | 4 ++++ 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+) diff -puN fs/ecryptfs/inode.c~ecryptfs-fix-lookup-error-for-special-files fs/ecryptfs/inode.c --- a/fs/ecryptfs/inode.c~ecryptfs-fix-lookup-error-for-special-files +++ a/fs/ecryptfs/inode.c @@ -353,6 +353,10 @@ static struct dentry *ecryptfs_lookup(st ecryptfs_printk(KERN_DEBUG, "Is a symlink; returning\n"); goto out; } + if (special_file(lower_inode->i_mode)) { + ecryptfs_printk(KERN_DEBUG, "Is a special file; returning\n"); + goto out; + } if (!nd) { ecryptfs_printk(KERN_DEBUG, "We have a NULL nd, just leave" "as we *think* we are about to unlink\n"); _