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
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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 | — |
SUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| 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
- DLA-4327-1 linux - security update Debian Security (DSA / DLA) · Mar 9, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2025:02846-1 Security update for the Linux Kernel SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Feb 4, 2026