CVE-2023-54032
Unknown Unknown - Not Provided
Race Condition in Linux btrfs Quota Root Deletion Causes Kernel Crash

Publication date: 2025-12-24

Last updated on: 2025-12-24

Assigner: kernel.org

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix race when deleting quota root from the dirty cow roots list When disabling quotas we are deleting the quota root from the list fs_info->dirty_cowonly_roots without taking the lock that protects it, which is struct btrfs_fs_info::trans_lock. This unsynchronized list manipulation may cause chaos if there's another concurrent manipulation of this list, such as when adding a root to it with ctree.c:add_root_to_dirty_list(). This can result in all sorts of weird failures caused by a race, such as the following crash: [337571.278245] general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdead000000000108: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI [337571.278933] CPU: 1 PID: 115447 Comm: btrfs Tainted: G W 6.4.0-rc6-btrfs-next-134+ #1 [337571.279153] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.14.0-0-g155821a1990b-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [337571.279572] RIP: 0010:commit_cowonly_roots+0x11f/0x250 [btrfs] [337571.279928] Code: 85 38 06 00 (...) [337571.280363] RSP: 0018:ffff9f63446efba0 EFLAGS: 00010206 [337571.280582] RAX: ffff942d98ec2638 RBX: ffff9430b82b4c30 RCX: 0000000449e1c000 [337571.280798] RDX: dead000000000100 RSI: ffff9430021e4900 RDI: 0000000000036070 [337571.281015] RBP: ffff942d98ec2000 R08: ffff942d98ec2000 R09: 000000000000015b [337571.281254] R10: 0000000000000009 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff942fe8fbf600 [337571.281476] R13: ffff942dabe23040 R14: ffff942dabe20800 R15: ffff942d92cf3b48 [337571.281723] FS: 00007f478adb7340(0000) GS:ffff94349fa40000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [337571.281950] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [337571.282184] CR2: 00007f478ab9a3d5 CR3: 000000001e02c001 CR4: 0000000000370ee0 [337571.282416] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [337571.282647] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [337571.282874] Call Trace: [337571.283101] <TASK> [337571.283327] ? __die_body+0x1b/0x60 [337571.283570] ? die_addr+0x39/0x60 [337571.283796] ? exc_general_protection+0x22e/0x430 [337571.284022] ? asm_exc_general_protection+0x22/0x30 [337571.284251] ? commit_cowonly_roots+0x11f/0x250 [btrfs] [337571.284531] btrfs_commit_transaction+0x42e/0xf90 [btrfs] [337571.284803] ? _raw_spin_unlock+0x15/0x30 [337571.285031] ? release_extent_buffer+0x103/0x130 [btrfs] [337571.285305] reset_balance_state+0x152/0x1b0 [btrfs] [337571.285578] btrfs_balance+0xa50/0x11e0 [btrfs] [337571.285864] ? __kmem_cache_alloc_node+0x14a/0x410 [337571.286086] btrfs_ioctl+0x249a/0x3320 [btrfs] [337571.286358] ? mod_objcg_state+0xd2/0x360 [337571.286577] ? refill_obj_stock+0xb0/0x160 [337571.286798] ? seq_release+0x25/0x30 [337571.287016] ? __rseq_handle_notify_resume+0x3ba/0x4b0 [337571.287235] ? percpu_counter_add_batch+0x2e/0xa0 [337571.287455] ? __x64_sys_ioctl+0x88/0xc0 [337571.287675] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x88/0xc0 [337571.287901] do_syscall_64+0x38/0x90 [337571.288126] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc [337571.288352] RIP: 0033:0x7f478aaffe9b So fix this by locking struct btrfs_fs_info::trans_lock before deleting the quota root from that list.
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Meta Information
Published
2025-12-24
Last Modified
2025-12-24
Generated
2026-05-07
AI Q&A
2025-12-24
EPSS Evaluated
2026-05-05
NVD
CVE-2023-54032
EUVD
EUVD-2025-205134
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
linux linux_kernel *
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
CWE Icon
KEV
KEV Icon
CWE ID Description
CWE-UNKNOWN
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?

This vulnerability is a race condition in the Linux kernel's Btrfs filesystem related to quota management. Specifically, when disabling quotas, the quota root is deleted from a list called dirty_cowonly_roots without properly acquiring the necessary lock (trans_lock). This unsynchronized manipulation can cause concurrent access issues, leading to unpredictable failures such as kernel crashes (general protection faults). The fix involves properly locking trans_lock before deleting the quota root from the list to prevent race conditions.


How can this vulnerability impact me? :

This vulnerability can cause system instability and crashes due to race conditions in the Btrfs quota management code. If exploited or triggered, it may lead to kernel panics or general protection faults, potentially causing data loss or system downtime.


What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?

Apply the patch or update to a Linux kernel version that includes the fix for this vulnerability, which involves locking struct btrfs_fs_info::trans_lock before deleting the quota root from the dirty cow roots list. This prevents the race condition causing potential crashes.


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