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High · 7.8 CVE-2023-53187 EUVD-2023-59789GHSA-4xcf-q92v-qp8c

btrfs: fix use-after-free of new block group that became unused

Published Sep 15, 2025 · Updated Aug 5, 2026 · Assigned by Linux

Vendor: Linux Product: Linux Package: kernel 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-5.15 Package: linux-aws-5.19 Package: linux-aws-5.3 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-6.5 Package: linux-aws-fips Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-5.11 Package: linux-azure-5.13 Package: linux-azure-5.15 Package: linux-azure-5.19 Package: linux-azure-5.3 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.11 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-6.5 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.15 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-5.15 Package: linux-gcp-5.19 Package: linux-gcp-5.3 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.11 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-6.5 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-5.15 Package: linux-gkeop-5.4 Package: linux-hwe Package: linux-hwe-5.11 Package: linux-hwe-5.13 Package: linux-hwe-5.15 Package: linux-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-ibm Package: linux-ibm-5.15 Package: linux-intel Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-intel-iotg Package: linux-intel-iotg-5.15 Package: linux-kvm Package: linux-lowlatency Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia-tegra Package: linux-nvidia-tegra-5.15 Package: linux-nvidia-tegra-igx 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-oem-6.11 Package: linux-oem-6.5 Package: linux-oem-6.8 Package: linux-oracle Package: linux-oracle-5.0 Package: linux-oracle-5.11 Package: linux-oracle-5.13 Package: linux-oracle-5.15 Package: linux-oracle-5.3 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-oracle-6.5 Package: linux-raspi Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-riscv Package: linux-riscv-5.11 Package: linux-riscv-5.15 Package: linux-riscv-5.19 Package: linux-riscv-5.8 Package: linux-riscv-6.5 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-starfive-6.5 Package: linux-vmware Package: linux-xilinx-zynqmp Platform: Linux Ecosystem: Azure Linux Ecosystem: Debian Ecosystem: Ubuntu

Description

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

btrfs: fix use-after-free of new block group that became unused

If a task creates a new block group and that block group becomes unused
before we finish its creation, at btrfs_create_pending_block_groups(),
then when btrfs_mark_bg_unused() is called against the block group, we
assume that the block group is currently in the list of block groups to
reclaim, and we move it out of the list of new block groups and into the
list of unused block groups. This has two consequences:

1) We move it out of the list of new block groups associated to the
current transaction. So the block group creation is not finished and
if we attempt to delete the bg because it's unused, we will not find
the block group item in the extent tree (or the new block group tree),
its device extent items in the device tree etc, resulting in the
deletion to fail due to the missing items;

2) We don't increment the reference count on the block group when we
move it to the list of unused block groups, because we assumed the
block group was on the list of block groups to reclaim, and in that
case it already has the correct reference count. However the block
group was on the list of new block groups, in which case no extra
reference was taken because it's local to the current task. This
later results in doing an extra reference count decrement when
removing the block group from the unused list, eventually leading the
reference count to 0.

This second case was caught when running generic/297 from fstests, which
produced the following assertion failure and stack trace:

[589.559] assertion failed: refcount_read(&block_group->refs) == 1, in fs/btrfs/block-group.c:4299
[589.559] ------------[ cut here ]------------
[589.559] kernel BUG at fs/btrfs/block-group.c:4299!
[589.560] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI
[589.560] CPU: 8 PID: 2819134 Comm: umount Tainted: G W 6.4.0-rc6-btrfs-next-134+ #1
[589.560] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.2-0-gea1b7a073390-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
[589.560] RIP: 0010:btrfs_free_block_groups+0x449/0x4a0 [btrfs]
[589.561] Code: 68 62 da c0 (...)
[589.561] RSP: 0018:ffffa55a8c3b3d98 EFLAGS: 00010246
[589.561] RAX: 0000000000000058 RBX: ffff8f030d7f2000 RCX: 0000000000000000
[589.562] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffffffff953f0878 RDI: 00000000ffffffff
[589.562] RBP: ffff8f030d7f2088 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffa55a8c3b3c50
[589.562] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff8f05850b4c00
[589.562] R13: ffff8f030d7f2090 R14: ffff8f05850b4cd8 R15: dead000000000100
[589.563] FS: 00007f497fd2e840(0000) GS:ffff8f09dfc00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[589.563] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[589.563] CR2: 00007f497ff8ec10 CR3: 0000000271472006 CR4: 0000000000370ee0
[589.563] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
[589.564] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
[589.564] Call Trace:
[589.564] <TASK>
[589.565] ? __die_body+0x1b/0x60
[589.565] ? die+0x39/0x60
[589.565] ? do_trap+0xeb/0x110
[589.565] ? btrfs_free_block_groups+0x449/0x4a0 [btrfs]
[589.566] ? do_error_trap+0x6a/0x90
[589.566] ? btrfs_free_block_groups+0x449/0x4a0 [btrfs]
[589.566] ? exc_invalid_op+0x4e/0x70
[589.566] ? btrfs_free_block_groups+0x449/0x4a0 [btrfs]
[589.567] ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x16/0x20
[589.567] ? btrfs_free_block_groups+0x449/0x4a0 [btrfs]
[589.567] ? btrfs_free_block_groups+0x449/0x4a0 [btrfs]
[589.567] close_ctree+0x35d/0x560 [btrfs]
[589.568] ? fsnotify_sb_delete+0x13e/0x1d0
[589.568] ? dispose_list+0x3a/0x50
[589.568] ? evict_inodes+0x151/0x1a0
[589.568] generic_shutdown_super+0x73/0x1a0
[589.569] kill_anon_super+0x14/0x30
[589.569] btrfs_kill_super+0x12/0x20 [btrfs]
[589.569] deactivate_locked
---truncated---

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 5.15.128 – < 5.16 5.16

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 6.4.13-1 —
Debian 13 linux 6.4.13-1 —
Debian 12 linux 6.1.52-1 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Nvidia-BlueField 22.04 LTS linux-bluefield No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-intel +9 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux +49 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +28 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 18.04 LTS linux-gcp +14 No fix yet —
Show 5 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 16.04 LTS linux-hwe-edge No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS linux-realtime +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 22.04 LTS linux-fips +3 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-preview 22.04 LTS linux-aws-fips +2 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS linux-aws-5.15 +10 No fix yet —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 SP7 kernel-64kb +6 6.4.0-150700.53.22.1 SUSE-SU-2025:4057-1
SLES 15 SP7 kernel-azure +2 6.4.0-150700.20.18.1 SUSE-SU-2025:4132-1
SLES 15 SP7 kernel-default-base 6.4.0-150700.53.22.1.150700.17.15.1 SUSE-SU-2025:4057-1
SLES 15 SP6 kernel-64kb +6 6.4.0-150600.23.73.1 SUSE-SU-2025:03600-1
SLES 15 SP6 kernel-azure +2 6.4.0-150600.8.52.1 SUSE-SU-2025:03634-1
SLES 15 SP6 kernel-default-base 6.4.0-150600.23.73.1.150600.12.32.1 SUSE-SU-2025:03600-1
Show 6 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLE Micro 6.1 kernel-default-base 6.4.0-35.1.21.12 SUSE-SU-2025:20861-1
SLE Micro 6.1 kernel-rt +1 6.4.0-37.1 SUSE-SU-2025:20898-1
SLE Micro 6.1 kernel-source +2 6.4.0-35.1 SUSE-SU-2025:20861-1
SLE Micro 6.0 kernel-default-base 6.4.0-35.1.21.12 SUSE-SU-2025:20851-1
SLE Micro 6.0 kernel-rt +1 6.4.0-37.1 SUSE-SU-2025:20870-1
SLE Micro 6.0 kernel-source +2 6.4.0-35.1 SUSE-SU-2025:20851-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP7 kernel-default 6.4.0-150700.53.22.1 SUSE-SU-2025:4057-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP7 kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP7-RT_Update_6 1-150700.1.3.1 SUSE-SU-2025:4141-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP7 kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP7_Update_6 1-150700.15.3.1 SUSE-SU-2025:4057-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP6 kernel-default 6.4.0-150600.23.73.1 SUSE-SU-2025:03600-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP6 kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP6-RT_Update_16 1-150600.1.3.1 SUSE-SU-2025:3751-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP6 kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP6_Update_16 1-150600.13.3.1 SUSE-SU-2025:03600-1
SUSE Real Time Module 15 SP7 kernel-rt +2 6.4.0-150700.7.22.1 SUSE-SU-2025:4141-1
SUSE Real Time Module 15 SP6 kernel-rt +3 6.4.0-150600.10.55.1 SUSE-SU-2025:3751-1
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Leap 15.6 dtb-aarch64 +10 6.4.0-150600.23.73.1 SUSE-SU-2025:03600-1
openSUSE Leap 15.6 kernel-azure +2 6.4.0-150600.8.52.1 SUSE-SU-2025:03634-1
openSUSE Leap 15.6 kernel-default-base 6.4.0-150600.23.73.1.150600.12.32.1 SUSE-SU-2025:03600-1
openSUSE Leap 15.6 kernel-rt +3 6.4.0-150600.10.55.1 SUSE-SU-2025:3751-1

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 2 (CBL-Mariner) kernel No fix yet —

Advisories 11

References