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Unscored CVE-2021-46987 EUVD-2021-33635GHSA-85xw-cv8g-9227

btrfs: fix deadlock when cloning inline extents and using qgroups

Published Feb 28, 2024 · Updated May 23, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: linux Package: linux Package: linux-allwinner-5.19 Package: linux-aws Package: linux-aws-5.0 Package: linux-aws-5.11 Package: linux-aws-5.13 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.4 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-fips Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.4 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-azure-fips Package: linux-bluefield Package: linux-fips Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-5.11 Package: linux-gcp-5.13 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.4 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-fips Package: linux-gke Package: linux-gke-4.15 Package: linux-gke-5.15 Package: linux-gke-5.4 Package: linux-gkeop Package: linux-gkeop-5.4 Package: linux-hwe Package: linux-hwe-5.11 Package: linux-hwe-5.13 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.4 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-ibm Package: linux-ibm-5.4 Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-iot Package: linux-kvm Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-oem Package: linux-oem-5.10 Package: linux-oem-5.13 Package: linux-oem-5.14 Package: linux-oem-5.17 Package: linux-oem-5.6 Package: linux-oem-6.0 Package: linux-oem-6.1 Package: linux-oracle Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.4 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-raspi Package: linux-raspi-5.4 Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-vmware Package: linux-xilinx-zynqmp Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

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

btrfs: fix deadlock when cloning inline extents and using qgroups

There are a few exceptional cases where cloning an inline extent needs to
copy the inline extent data into a page of the destination inode.

When this happens, we end up starting a transaction while having a dirty
page for the destination inode and while having the range locked in the
destination's inode iotree too. Because when reserving metadata space
for a transaction we may need to flush existing delalloc in case there is
not enough free space, we have a mechanism in place to prevent a deadlock,
which was introduced in commit 3d45f221ce627d ("btrfs: fix deadlock when
cloning inline extent and low on free metadata space").

However when using qgroups, a transaction also reserves metadata qgroup
space, which can also result in flushing delalloc in case there is not
enough available space at the moment. When this happens we deadlock, since
flushing delalloc requires locking the file range in the inode's iotree
and the range was already locked at the very beginning of the clone
operation, before attempting to start the transaction.

When this issue happens, stack traces like the following are reported:

[72747.556262] task:kworker/u81:9 state:D stack: 0 pid: 225 ppid: 2 flags:0x00004000
[72747.556268] Workqueue: writeback wb_workfn (flush-btrfs-1142)
[72747.556271] Call Trace:
[72747.556273] __schedule+0x296/0x760
[72747.556277] schedule+0x3c/0xa0
[72747.556279] io_schedule+0x12/0x40
[72747.556284] __lock_page+0x13c/0x280
[72747.556287] ? generic_file_readonly_mmap+0x70/0x70
[72747.556325] extent_write_cache_pages+0x22a/0x440 [btrfs]
[72747.556331] ? __set_page_dirty_nobuffers+0xe7/0x160
[72747.556358] ? set_extent_buffer_dirty+0x5e/0x80 [btrfs]
[72747.556362] ? update_group_capacity+0x25/0x210
[72747.556366] ? cpumask_next_and+0x1a/0x20
[72747.556391] extent_writepages+0x44/0xa0 [btrfs]
[72747.556394] do_writepages+0x41/0xd0
[72747.556398] __writeback_single_inode+0x39/0x2a0
[72747.556403] writeback_sb_inodes+0x1ea/0x440
[72747.556407] __writeback_inodes_wb+0x5f/0xc0
[72747.556410] wb_writeback+0x235/0x2b0
[72747.556414] ? get_nr_inodes+0x35/0x50
[72747.556417] wb_workfn+0x354/0x490
[72747.556420] ? newidle_balance+0x2c5/0x3e0
[72747.556424] process_one_work+0x1aa/0x340
[72747.556426] worker_thread+0x30/0x390
[72747.556429] ? create_worker+0x1a0/0x1a0
[72747.556432] kthread+0x116/0x130
[72747.556435] ? kthread_park+0x80/0x80
[72747.556438] ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30

[72747.566958] Workqueue: btrfs-flush_delalloc btrfs_work_helper [btrfs]
[72747.566961] Call Trace:
[72747.566964] __schedule+0x296/0x760
[72747.566968] ? finish_wait+0x80/0x80
[72747.566970] schedule+0x3c/0xa0
[72747.566995] wait_extent_bit.constprop.68+0x13b/0x1c0 [btrfs]
[72747.566999] ? finish_wait+0x80/0x80
[72747.567024] lock_extent_bits+0x37/0x90 [btrfs]
[72747.567047] btrfs_invalidatepage+0x299/0x2c0 [btrfs]
[72747.567051] ? find_get_pages_range_tag+0x2cd/0x380
[72747.567076] __extent_writepage+0x203/0x320 [btrfs]
[72747.567102] extent_write_cache_pages+0x2bb/0x440 [btrfs]
[72747.567106] ? update_load_avg+0x7e/0x5f0
[72747.567109] ? enqueue_entity+0xf4/0x6f0
[72747.567134] extent_writepages+0x44/0xa0 [btrfs]
[72747.567137] ? enqueue_task_fair+0x93/0x6f0
[72747.567140] do_writepages+0x41/0xd0
[72747.567144] __filemap_fdatawrite_range+0xc7/0x100
[72747.567167] btrfs_run_delalloc_work+0x17/0x40 [btrfs]
[72747.567195] btrfs_work_helper+0xc2/0x300 [btrfs]
[72747.567200] process_one_work+0x1aa/0x340
[72747.567202] worker_thread+0x30/0x390
[72747.567205] ? create_worker+0x1a0/0x1a0
[72747.567208] kthread+0x116/0x130
[72747.567211] ? kthread_park+0x80/0x80
[72747.567214] ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30

[72747.569686] task:fsstress state:D stack:
---truncated---

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 5.4.141 – < 5.5, 5.9 5.5

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 linux 5.14.6-1 —
Debian 13 linux 5.14.6-1 —
Debian 12 linux 5.14.6-1 —
Debian 11 linux 5.10.244-1 DLA-4327-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-raspi-realtime No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-riscv +22 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +27 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +13 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
Show 3 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS linux +10 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS linux-aws-5.4 +6 No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 12 SP5 kernel-syms +2 4.12.14-122.269.1 SUSE-SU-2025:02846-1
Show 1 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLE Live Patching 12 SP5 kernel-default 4.12.14-122.269.1 SUSE-SU-2025:02846-1
SLE Live Patching 12 SP5 kgraft-patch-SLE12-SP5_Update_71 1-8.3.1 SUSE-SU-2025:02846-1

Advisories 2

References