Linux Kernel up to 5.15.7 btrfs stack-based overflow

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability labeled as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.7. This affects an unknown function of the component btrfs. Executing a manipulation can lead to stack-based overflow. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2021-47510. There is no exploit available. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.7. It has been declared as critical. This vulnerability affects an unknown part of the component btrfs. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a stack-based overflow vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-121. A stack-based buffer overflow condition is a condition where the buffer being overwritten is allocated on the stack (i.e., is a local variable or, rarely, a parameter to a function). As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix re-dirty process of tree-log nodes There is a report of a transaction abort of -EAGAIN with the following script. #!/bin/sh for d in sda sdb; do mkfs.btrfs -d single -m single -f /dev/\${d} done mount /dev/sda /mnt/test mount /dev/sdb /mnt/scratch for dir in test scratch; do echo 3 >/proc/sys/vm/drop_caches fio --directory=/mnt/\${dir} --name=fio.\${dir} --rw=read --size=50G --bs=64m \ --numjobs=$(nproc) --time_based --ramp_time=5 --runtime=480 \ --group_reporting |& tee /dev/shm/fio.\${dir} echo 3 >/proc/sys/vm/drop_caches done for d in sda sdb; do umount /dev/\${d} done The stack trace is shown in below. [3310.967991] BTRFS: error (device sda) in btrfs_commit_transaction:2341: errno=-11 unknown (Error while writing out transaction) [3310.968060] BTRFS info (device sda): forced readonly [3310.968064] BTRFS warning (device sda): Skipping commit of aborted transaction. [3310.968065] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [3310.968066] BTRFS: Transaction aborted (error -11) [3310.968074] WARNING: CPU: 14 PID: 1684 at fs/btrfs/transaction.c:1946 btrfs_commit_transaction.cold+0x209/0x2c8 [3310.968131] CPU: 14 PID: 1684 Comm: fio Not tainted 5.14.10-300.fc35.x86_64 #1 [3310.968135] Hardware name: DIAWAY Tartu/Tartu, BIOS V2.01.B10 04/08/2021 [3310.968137] RIP: 0010:btrfs_commit_transaction.cold+0x209/0x2c8 [3310.968144] RSP: 0018:ffffb284ce393e10 EFLAGS: 00010282 [3310.968147] RAX: 0000000000000026 RBX: ffff973f147b0f60 RCX: 0000000000000027 [3310.968149] RDX: ffff974ecf098a08 RSI: 0000000000000001 RDI: ffff974ecf098a00 [3310.968150] RBP: ffff973f147b0f08 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffb284ce393c48 [3310.968151] R10: ffffb284ce393c40 R11: ffffffff84f47468 R12: ffff973f101bfc00 [3310.968153] R13: ffff971f20cf2000 R14: 00000000fffffff5 R15: ffff973f147b0e58 [3310.968154] FS: 00007efe65468740(0000) GS:ffff974ecf080000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [3310.968157] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [3310.968158] CR2: 000055691bcbe260 CR3: 000000105cfa4001 CR4: 0000000000770ee0 [3310.968160] PKRU: 55555554 [3310.968161] Call Trace: [3310.968167] ? dput+0xd4/0x300 [3310.968174] btrfs_sync_file+0x3f1/0x490 [3310.968180] __x64_sys_fsync+0x33/0x60 [3310.968185] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 [3310.968190] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae [3310.968194] RIP: 0033:0x7efe6557329b [3310.968200] RSP: 002b:00007ffe0236ebc0 EFLAGS: 00000293 ORIG_RAX: 000000000000004a [3310.968203] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007efe6557329b [3310.968204] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 00007efe58d77010 RDI: 0000000000000006 [3310.968205] RBP: 0000000004000000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 00007efe58d77010 [3310.968207] R10: 0000000016cacc0c R11: 0000000000000293 R12: 00007efe5ce95980 [3310.968208] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 00007efe6447c790 R15: 0000000c80000000 [3310.968212] ---[ end trace 1a346f4d3c0d96ba ]--- [3310.968214] BTRFS: error (device sda) in cleanup_transaction:1946: errno=-11 unknown The abort occurs because of a write hole while writing out freeing tree nodes of a tree-log tree. For zoned btrfs, we re-dirty a freed tree node to ensure btrfs can write the region and does not leave a hole on write on a zoned device. The current code fails to re-dirty a node when the tree-log tree's depth is greater or equal to 2. That leads to a transaction abort with -EAGAIN. Fix the issue by properly re-dirtying a node on walking up the tree.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability was named CVE-2021-47510. The exploitation appears to be easy. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 09/29/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 250212 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2021-47510), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.15.8 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 477675049ca8/84c254489299 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at Tenable (250212). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.15.0
• 5.15.1
• 5.15.2
• 5.15.3
• 5.15.4
• 5.15.5
• 5.15.6
• 5.15.7

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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Entryinfo

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