Linux Kernel up to 6.12.8 btrfs inode.c close_ctree use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.10.232/5.15.175/6.1.123/6.6.69/6.12.8. Impacted is the function close_ctree of the file inode.c of the component btrfs. Such manipulation leads to use after free. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2024-57896. There is not any exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.10.232/5.15.175/6.1.123/6.6.69/6.12.8 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function close_ctree of the file inode.c of the component btrfs. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: flush delalloc workers queue before stopping cleaner kthread during unmount During the unmount path, at close_ctree(), we first stop the cleaner kthread, using kthread_stop() which frees the associated task_struct, and then stop and destroy all the work queues. However after we stopped the cleaner we may still have a worker from the delalloc_workers queue running inode.c:submit_compressed_extents(), which calls btrfs_add_delayed_iput(), which in turn tries to wake up the cleaner kthread - which was already destroyed before, resulting in a use-after-free on the task_struct. Syzbot reported this with the following stack traces: BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in __lock_acquire+0x78/0x2100 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5089 Read of size 8 at addr ffff8880259d2818 by task kworker/u8:3/52 CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 52 Comm: kworker/u8:3 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc1-syzkaller-00002-gcdd30ebb1b9f #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 09/13/2024 Workqueue: btrfs-delalloc btrfs_work_helper Call Trace: __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0x241/0x360 lib/dump_stack.c:120 print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline] print_report+0x169/0x550 mm/kasan/report.c:489 kasan_report+0x143/0x180 mm/kasan/report.c:602 __lock_acquire+0x78/0x2100 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5089 lock_acquire+0x1ed/0x550 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5849 __raw_spin_lock_irqsave include/linux/spinlock_api_smp.h:110 [inline] _raw_spin_lock_irqsave+0xd5/0x120 kernel/locking/spinlock.c:162 class_raw_spinlock_irqsave_constructor include/linux/spinlock.h:551 [inline] try_to_wake_up+0xc2/0x1470 kernel/sched/core.c:4205 submit_compressed_extents+0xdf/0x16e0 fs/btrfs/inode.c:1615 run_ordered_work fs/btrfs/async-thread.c:288 [inline] btrfs_work_helper+0x96f/0xc40 fs/btrfs/async-thread.c:324 process_one_work kernel/workqueue.c:3229 [inline] process_scheduled_works+0xa66/0x1840 kernel/workqueue.c:3310 worker_thread+0x870/0xd30 kernel/workqueue.c:3391 kthread+0x2f0/0x390 kernel/kthread.c:389 ret_from_fork+0x4b/0x80 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:147 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:244 Allocated by task 2: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x3f/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:68 unpoison_slab_object mm/kasan/common.c:319 [inline] __kasan_slab_alloc+0x66/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:345 kasan_slab_alloc include/linux/kasan.h:250 [inline] slab_post_alloc_hook mm/slub.c:4104 [inline] slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:4153 [inline] kmem_cache_alloc_node_noprof+0x1d9/0x380 mm/slub.c:4205 alloc_task_struct_node kernel/fork.c:180 [inline] dup_task_struct+0x57/0x8c0 kernel/fork.c:1113 copy_process+0x5d1/0x3d50 kernel/fork.c:2225 kernel_clone+0x223/0x870 kernel/fork.c:2807 kernel_thread+0x1bc/0x240 kernel/fork.c:2869 create_kthread kernel/kthread.c:412 [inline] kthreadd+0x60d/0x810 kernel/kthread.c:767 ret_from_fork+0x4b/0x80 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:147 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:244 Freed by task 24: kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline] kasan_save_track+0x3f/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:68 kasan_save_free_info+0x40/0x50 mm/kasan/generic.c:582 poison_slab_object mm/kasan/common.c:247 [inline] __kasan_slab_free+0x59/0x70 mm/kasan/common.c:264 kasan_slab_free include/linux/kasan.h:233 [inline] slab_free_hook mm/slub.c:2338 [inline] slab_free mm/slub.c:4598 [inline] kmem_cache_free+0x195/0x410 mm/slub.c:4700 put_task_struct include/linux/sched/task.h:144 [inline] delayed_put_task_struct+0x125/0x300 kernel/exit.c:227 rcu_do_batch kernel/rcu/tree.c:2567 [inline] rcu_core+0xaaa/0x17a0 kernel/rcu/tree.c:2823 handle_softirqs+0x2d4/0x9b0 kernel/softirq.c:554 run_ksoftirqd+0xca/0x130 kernel/softirq.c:943 ---truncated---

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2024-57896 since 01/11/2025. The exploitation is known to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 03/09/2026).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 214901 (SUSE SLES15 Security Update : kernel (SUSE-SU-2025:0289-1)), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 5.10.233, 5.15.176, 6.1.124, 6.6.70 or 6.12.9 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch a2718ed1eb8c3611b63f8933c7e68c8821fe2808/63f4b594a688bf922e8691f0784679aa7af7988c/1ea629e7bb2fb40555e5e01a1b5095df31287017/35916b2f96505a18dc7242a115611b718d9de725/d77a3a99b53d12c061c007cdc96df38825dee476/f10bef73fb355e3fc85e63a50386798be68ff486 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 databases at Tenable (214901) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-0105). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Debian Linux
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Dell NetWorker
• Dell Avamar
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Dell PowerProtect Data Domain
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.10.232
• 5.15.175
• 6.1.123
• 6.6.0
• 6.6.1
• 6.6.2
• 6.6.3
• 6.6.4
• 6.6.5
• 6.6.6
• 6.6.7
• 6.6.8
• 6.6.9
• 6.6.10
• 6.6.11
• 6.6.12
• 6.6.13
• 6.6.14
• 6.6.15
• 6.6.16
• 6.6.17
• 6.6.18
• 6.6.19
• 6.6.20
• 6.6.21
• 6.6.22
• 6.6.23
• 6.6.24
• 6.6.25
• 6.6.26
• 6.6.27
• 6.6.28
• 6.6.29
• 6.6.30
• 6.6.31
• 6.6.32
• 6.6.33
• 6.6.34
• 6.6.35
• 6.6.36
• 6.6.37
• 6.6.38
• 6.6.39
• 6.6.40
• 6.6.41
• 6.6.42
• 6.6.43
• 6.6.44
• 6.6.45
• 6.6.46
• 6.6.47
• 6.6.48
• 6.6.49
• 6.6.50
• 6.6.51
• 6.6.52
• 6.6.53
• 6.6.54
• 6.6.55
• 6.6.56
• 6.6.57
• 6.6.58
• 6.6.59
• 6.6.60
• 6.6.61
• 6.6.62
• 6.6.63
• 6.6.64
• 6.6.65
• 6.6.66
• 6.6.67
• 6.6.68
• 6.6.69
• 6.12.0
• 6.12.1
• 6.12.2
• 6.12.3
• 6.12.4
• 6.12.5
• 6.12.6
• 6.12.7
• 6.12.8

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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CVSSv4info

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CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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