Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
btrfs: do proper folio cleanup when cow_file_range() failed
[BUG]
When testing with COW fixup marked as BUG_ON() (this is involved with the
new pin_user_pages*() change, which should not result new out-of-band
dirty pages), I hit a crash triggered by the BUG_ON() from hitting COW
fixup path.
This BUG_ON() happens just after a failed btrfs_run_delalloc_range():
BTRFS error (device dm-2): failed to run delalloc range, root 348 ino 405 folio 65536 submit_bitmap 6-15 start 90112 len 106496: -28
------------[ cut here ]------------
kernel BUG at fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:1444!
Internal error: Oops - BUG: 00000000f2000800 [#1] SMP
CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 434621 Comm: kworker/u24:8 Tainted: G OE 6.12.0-rc7-custom+ #86
Hardware name: QEMU KVM Virtual Machine, BIOS unknown 2/2/2022
Workqueue: events_unbound btrfs_async_reclaim_data_space [btrfs]
pc : extent_writepage_io+0x2d4/0x308 [btrfs]
lr : extent_writepage_io+0x2d4/0x308 [btrfs]
Call trace:
extent_writepage_io+0x2d4/0x308 [btrfs]
extent_writepage+0x218/0x330 [btrfs]
extent_write_cache_pages+0x1d4/0x4b0 [btrfs]
btrfs_writepages+0x94/0x150 [btrfs]
do_writepages+0x74/0x190
filemap_fdatawrite_wbc+0x88/0xc8
start_delalloc_inodes+0x180/0x3b0 [btrfs]
btrfs_start_delalloc_roots+0x174/0x280 [btrfs]
shrink_delalloc+0x114/0x280 [btrfs]
flush_space+0x250/0x2f8 [btrfs]
btrfs_async_reclaim_data_space+0x180/0x228 [btrfs]
process_one_work+0x164/0x408
worker_thread+0x25c/0x388
kthread+0x100/0x118
ret_from_fork+0x10/0x20
Code: aa1403e1 9402f3ef aa1403e0 9402f36f (d4210000)
---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
[CAUSE]
That failure is mostly from cow_file_range(), where we can hit -ENOSPC.
Although the -ENOSPC is already a bug related to our space reservation
code, let's just focus on the error handling.
For example, we have the following dirty range [0, 64K) of an inode,
with 4K sector size and 4K page size:
0 16K 32K 48K 64K
|///////////////////////////////////////|
|#######################################|
Where |///| means page are still dirty, and |###| means the extent io
tree has EXTENT_DELALLOC flag.
- Enter extent_writepage() for page 0
- Enter btrfs_run_delalloc_range() for range [0, 64K)
- Enter cow_file_range() for range [0, 64K)
- Function btrfs_reserve_extent() only reserved one 16K extent
So we created extent map and ordered extent for range [0, 16K)
0 16K 32K 48K 64K
|////////|//////////////////////////////|
|<- OE ->|##############################|
And range [0, 16K) has its delalloc flag cleared.
But since we haven't yet submit any bio, involved 4 pages are still
dirty.
- Function btrfs_reserve_extent() returns with -ENOSPC
Now we have to run error cleanup, which will clear all
EXTENT_DELALLOC* flags and clear the dirty flags for the remaining
ranges:
0 16K 32K 48K 64K
|////////| |
| | |
Note that range [0, 16K) still has its pages dirty.
- Some time later, writeback is triggered again for the range [0, 16K)
since the page range still has dirty flags.
- btrfs_run_delalloc_range() will do nothing because there is no
EXTENT_DELALLOC flag.
- extent_writepage_io() finds page 0 has no ordered flag
Which falls into the COW fixup path, triggering the BUG_ON().
Unfortunately this error handling bug dates back to the introduction of
btrfs. Thankfully with the abuse of COW fixup, at least it won't crash
the kernel.
[FIX]
Instead of immediately unlocking the extent and folios, we keep the extent
and folios locked until either erroring out or the whole delalloc range
finished.
When the whole delalloc range finished without error, we just unlock the
whole range with PAGE_SET_ORDERED (and PAGE_UNLOCK for !keep_locked
cases)
---truncated---
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | 2.6.32 | 6.1.191 |
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 | 6.12.37-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | linux | 6.12.37-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | linux | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Nvidia-BlueField 24.04 LTS | linux-bluefield | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Nvidia-BlueField 22.04 LTS | linux-bluefield | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | linux +27 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | linux +59 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 20.04 LTS | linux-gke +28 | No fix yet | — |
Show 17 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 18.04 LTS | linux-gcp +14 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 16.04 LTS | linux-hwe-edge | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS | linux-realtime +1 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS | linux-realtime +2 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS 20.04 LTS | linux-fips +3 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS 18.04 LTS | linux-fips +3 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS 16.04 LTS | linux-fips | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS | linux-fips +3 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 22.04 LTS | linux-fips +3 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 20.04 LTS | linux-fips +3 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 18.04 LTS | linux-fips +3 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 16.04 LTS | linux-fips | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro FIPS-preview 22.04 LTS | linux-fips +3 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | linux +21 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | linux +12 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | linux +7 | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS | linux +3 | No fix yet | — |
Amazon Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon Linux 2023 | bpftool +14 | 6.12.29-33.102.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2025-994, ALAS2023-2025-984 |
| Amazon Linux 2023 | kernel-livepatch-6.12.29-33.102 | 1.0-0.amzn2023 | ALAS2023-2025-994, ALAS2023-2025-984 |
Azure Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Azure Linux 3 | kernel | No fix yet | — |
| Azure Linux 2 (CBL-Mariner) | kernel | No fix yet | — |
Oracle Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 9 | kernel-uek +34 | 6.12.0-103.40.4.1.el10uek | ELSA-2025-20551 |
Advisories 4
- WID-SEC-2025-0453 Linux Kernel: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · Nov 11, 2026
- ELSA-2025-20551 Important: Unbreakable Enterprise kernel security update (Oracle Linux 9) Oracle Linux Security Advisories (ELSA) · Sep 8, 2025
- ALAS2023-2025-994 Important: kernel6.12 security update (Amazon Linux 2023) Amazon Linux Security Center (ALAS) · Aug 26, 2025
- ALAS2023-2025-984 Moderate: kernel6.12 security update (Amazon Linux 2023) Amazon Linux Security Center (ALAS) · Jun 2, 2025
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/29418ebb8b4d4d090e403d395a6db7e8455331f7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4ace6fb49c8be23b005828763d8b0d0bb0f3b0c5
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/10b3772292bf1be45604ba83fd9650eb94382e78
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/692cf71173bb41395c855acbbbe197d3aedfa5d4
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/06f364284794f149d2abc167c11d556cf20c954b