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Unscored CVE-2026-31519 EUVD-2026-24903GHSA-p3jm-9f4h-xp4f

btrfs: set BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP during subvol create

Published Apr 22, 2026 · Updated Nov 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-5.4 Package: linux-aws-5.8 Package: linux-aws-6.14 Package: linux-aws-6.17 Package: linux-aws-6.2 Package: linux-aws-6.5 Package: linux-aws-6.8 Package: linux-aws-fips Package: linux-aws-hwe Package: linux-azure Package: linux-azure-4.15 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-5.4 Package: linux-azure-5.8 Package: linux-azure-6.11 Package: linux-azure-6.14 Package: linux-azure-6.17 Package: linux-azure-6.2 Package: linux-azure-6.5 Package: linux-azure-6.8 Package: linux-azure-edge Package: linux-azure-fde Package: linux-azure-fde-5.15 Package: linux-azure-fde-5.19 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.14 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.2 Package: linux-azure-fde-6.8 Package: linux-azure-fips Package: linux-azure-nvidia Package: linux-azure-nvidia-6.14 Package: linux-bluefield Package: linux-fips Package: linux-gcp Package: linux-gcp-4.15 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-5.4 Package: linux-gcp-5.8 Package: linux-gcp-6.11 Package: linux-gcp-6.14 Package: linux-gcp-6.17 Package: linux-gcp-6.2 Package: linux-gcp-6.5 Package: linux-gcp-6.8 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-5.4 Package: linux-hwe-5.8 Package: linux-hwe-6.11 Package: linux-hwe-6.14 Package: linux-hwe-6.17 Package: linux-hwe-6.2 Package: linux-hwe-6.5 Package: linux-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-hwe-edge Package: linux-ibm Package: linux-ibm-5.15 Package: linux-ibm-5.4 Package: linux-ibm-6.8 Package: linux-intel-5.13 Package: linux-intel-iot-realtime Package: linux-intel-iotg Package: linux-intel-iotg-5.15 Package: linux-iot 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-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 Package: linux-lts-xenial Package: linux-nvidia Package: linux-nvidia-6.11 Package: linux-nvidia-6.17 Package: linux-nvidia-6.2 Package: linux-nvidia-6.5 Package: linux-nvidia-6.8 Package: linux-nvidia-lowlatency 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-6.14 Package: linux-oem-6.17 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-5.4 Package: linux-oracle-5.8 Package: linux-oracle-6.14 Package: linux-oracle-6.17 Package: linux-oracle-6.5 Package: linux-oracle-6.8 Package: linux-raspi Package: linux-raspi-5.4 Package: linux-raspi-realtime Package: linux-raspi2 Package: linux-realtime Package: linux-realtime-6.14 Package: linux-realtime-6.17 Package: linux-realtime-6.8 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-6.14 Package: linux-riscv-6.17 Package: linux-riscv-6.5 Package: linux-riscv-6.8 Package: linux-starfive-5.19 Package: linux-starfive-6.2 Package: linux-starfive-6.5 Package: linux-vmware Package: linux-xilinx 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: set BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP during subvol create

We have recently observed a number of subvolumes with broken dentries.
ls-ing the parent dir looks like:

drwxrwxrwt 1 root root 16 Jan 23 16:49 .
drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 24 Jan 23 16:48 ..
d????????? ? ? ? ? ? broken_subvol

and similarly stat-ing the file fails.

In this state, deleting the subvol fails with ENOENT, but attempting to
create a new file or subvol over it errors out with EEXIST and even
aborts the fs. Which leaves us a bit stuck.

dmesg contains a single notable error message reading:
"could not do orphan cleanup -2"

2 is ENOENT and the error comes from the failure handling path of
btrfs_orphan_cleanup(), with the stack leading back up to
btrfs_lookup().

btrfs_lookup
btrfs_lookup_dentry
btrfs_orphan_cleanup // prints that message and returns -ENOENT

After some detailed inspection of the internal state, it became clear
that:
- there are no orphan items for the subvol
- the subvol is otherwise healthy looking, it is not half-deleted or
anything, there is no drop progress, etc.
- the subvol was created a while ago and does the meaningful first
btrfs_orphan_cleanup() call that sets BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP much
later.
- after btrfs_orphan_cleanup() fails, btrfs_lookup_dentry() returns -ENOENT,
which results in a negative dentry for the subvolume via
d_splice_alias(NULL, dentry), leading to the observed behavior. The
bug can be mitigated by dropping the dentry cache, at which point we
can successfully delete the subvolume if we want.

i.e.,
btrfs_lookup()
btrfs_lookup_dentry()
if (!sb_rdonly(inode->vfs_inode)->vfs_inode)
btrfs_orphan_cleanup(sub_root)
test_and_set_bit(BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP)
btrfs_search_slot() // finds orphan item for inode N
...
prints "could not do orphan cleanup -2"
if (inode == ERR_PTR(-ENOENT))
inode = NULL;
return d_splice_alias(NULL, dentry) // NEGATIVE DENTRY for valid subvolume

btrfs_orphan_cleanup() does test_and_set_bit(BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP)
on the root when it runs, so it cannot run more than once on a given
root, so something else must run concurrently. However, the obvious
routes to deleting an orphan when nlinks goes to 0 should not be able to
run without first doing a lookup into the subvolume, which should run
btrfs_orphan_cleanup() and set the bit.

The final important observation is that create_subvol() calls
d_instantiate_new() but does not set BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP, so if
the dentry cache gets dropped, the next lookup into the subvolume will
make a real call into btrfs_orphan_cleanup() for the first time. This
opens up the possibility of concurrently deleting the inode/orphan items
but most typical evict() paths will be holding a reference on the parent
dentry (child dentry holds parent->d_lockref.count via dget in
d_alloc(), released in __dentry_kill()) and prevent the parent from
being removed from the dentry cache.

The one exception is delayed iputs. Ordered extent creation calls
igrab() on the inode. If the file is unlinked and closed while those
refs are held, iput() in __dentry_kill() decrements i_count but does
not trigger eviction (i_count > 0). The child dentry is freed and the
subvol dentry's d_lockref.count drops to 0, making it evictable while
the inode is still alive.

Since there are two races (the race between writeback and unlink and
the race between lookup and delayed iputs), and there are too many moving
parts, the following three diagrams show the complete picture.
(Only the second and third are races)

Phase 1:
Create Subvol in dentry cache without BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP set

btrfs_mksubvol()
lookup_one_len()
__lookup_slow()
d_alloc_parallel()
__d_alloc() // d_lockref.count = 1
create_subvol(dentry)
// doesn't touch the bit..
d_instantiate_new(dentry, inode) // dentry in cache with d_lockref.c
---truncated---

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
Linux Linux 2.6.32.19 – < 2.6.33, 2.6.33 2.6.33

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 6.19.11-1 —
Debian 13 linux 6.12.85-1 —
Debian 12 linux 6.1.170-1 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Nvidia-BlueField 24.04 LTS linux-bluefield 6.8.0-1028.33 —
Ubuntu Nvidia-BlueField 22.04 LTS linux-bluefield No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 linux +8 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux 6.8.0-136.136 USN-8567-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-aws 6.8.0-1061.64 USN-8595-2
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure 6.8.0-1063.71 USN-8606-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-azure-fde 6.8.0-1062.69 USN-8607-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gcp 6.8.0-1064.72 USN-8567-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gke 6.8.0-1059.67 USN-8567-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-gkeop 6.8.0-1046.50 USN-8567-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-ibm 6.8.0-1061.62 USN-8574-3
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-lowlatency 6.8.0-136.136.2 USN-8574-2
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia 6.8.0-1059.62 USN-8596-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-lowlatency 6.8.0-1059.62.1 USN-8596-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-nvidia-tegra 6.8.0-1030.31 USN-8574-3
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-oracle 6.8.0-1058.61 USN-8574-2
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-raspi 6.8.0-1061.65 USN-8665-1
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-riscv +27 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-vmware 6.8.0-1008.8 —
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS linux-xilinx 6.8.0-1033.34 USN-8574-3
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux +49 No fix yet —
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-aws-6.8 6.8.0-1061.64~22.04.1 USN-8595-3
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-azure-6.8 6.8.0-1063.71~22.04.1 USN-8606-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-azure-fde-6.8 6.8.0-1062.69~22.04.1 USN-8609-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-gcp-6.8 6.8.0-1064.72~22.04.1 USN-8567-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-hwe-6.8 6.8.0-136.136~22.04.1 USN-8619-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-ibm-6.8 6.8.0-1061.62~22.04.1 USN-8574-3
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 6.8.0-136.136.2~22.04.1 USN-8574-2
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-nvidia-6.8 6.8.0-1059.62~22.04.1 USN-8596-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-oracle-6.8 6.8.0-1058.61~22.04.1 USN-8595-1
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS linux-riscv-6.8 6.8.0-136.136~22.04.3 —
Show 18 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 20.04 LTS linux-gke +28 No fix yet —
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-raspi-realtime 6.8.0-2050.52 USN-8665-1
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime 6.8.1-1056.57 USN-8567-1
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 24.04 LTS linux-realtime-6.14 +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS linux-realtime +1 No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro Realtime 22.04 LTS linux-realtime-6.8 6.8.1-1056.57~22.04.2 USN-8567-1
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-aws-fips 6.8.0-1061.64+fips1 USN-8595-3
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-azure-fips 6.8.0-1063.71+fips2 USN-8608-1
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-fips 6.8.0-136.136+fips2 USN-8574-2
Ubuntu Pro FIPS-updates 24.04 LTS linux-gcp-fips 6.8.0-1064.72+fips1 USN-8574-1
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 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLES 15 SP7 kernel-64kb +7 6.4.0-150700.53.55.1 SUSE-SU-2026:2238-1
SLES 15 SP7 kernel-default-base 6.4.0-150700.53.55.1.150700.17.33.1 SUSE-SU-2026:2238-1
Show 2 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
SLE Micro 6.2 kernel-syms +1 6.12.0-160000.33.1 SUSE-SU-2026:21834-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP7 kernel-default 6.4.0-150700.53.55.1 SUSE-SU-2026:2238-1
SLE Live Patching 15 SP7 kernel-livepatch-SLE15-SP7_Update_15 1-150700.15.3.1 SUSE-SU-2026:2238-1

Amazon Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Amazon Linux 2023 kernel-livepatch-6.18.25-52.107 +2 1:1.0-0.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-1746, ALAS2023-2026-1681, ALAS2023-2026-1646
Amazon Linux 2023 perf +14 1:6.1.168-202.320.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-1681
Amazon Linux 2023 perf6.12 +14 1:6.12.80-105.147.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-1646
Amazon Linux 2023 perf6.18 +11 1:6.18.25-52.107.amzn2023 ALAS2023-2026-1746

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 3 kernel 6.6.134.1-2 —

Oracle Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Oracle Linux 9 kernel-uek +34 6.12.0-204.92.4.2.el10uek ELSA-2026-50372

Advisories 21

References