Linux Kernel up to 6.12.43/6.16.3/6.17-rc2 btrfs_subpage_set_writeback assertion

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as critical has been reported in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.43/6.16.3/6.17-rc2. Impacted is the function btrfs_subpage_set_writeback. Performing a manipulation results in assertion. This vulnerability is identified as CVE-2025-39779. There is not any exploit available. It is suggested to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.12.43/6.16.3/6.17-rc2. It has been classified as critical. This affects the function btrfs_subpage_set_writeback. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a assertion vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as CWE-617. The product contains an assert() or similar statement that can be triggered by an attacker, which leads to an application exit or other behavior that is more severe than necessary. This is going to have an impact on availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: subpage: keep TOWRITE tag until folio is cleaned btrfs_subpage_set_writeback() calls folio_start_writeback() the first time a folio is written back, and it also clears the PAGECACHE_TAG_TOWRITE tag even if there are still dirty blocks in the folio. This can break ordering guarantees, such as those required by btrfs_wait_ordered_extents(). That ordering breakage leads to a real failure. For example, running generic/464 on a zoned setup will hit the following ASSERT. This happens because the broken ordering fails to flush existing dirty pages before the file size is truncated. assertion failed: !list_empty(&ordered->list) :: 0, in fs/btrfs/zoned.c:1899 ------------[ cut here ]------------ kernel BUG at fs/btrfs/zoned.c:1899! Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 1906169 Comm: kworker/u130:2 Kdump: loaded Not tainted 6.16.0-rc6-BTRFS-ZNS+ #554 PREEMPT(voluntary) Hardware name: Supermicro Super Server/H12SSL-NT, BIOS 2.0 02/22/2021 Workqueue: btrfs-endio-write btrfs_work_helper [btrfs] RIP: 0010:btrfs_finish_ordered_zoned.cold+0x50/0x52 [btrfs] RSP: 0018:ffffc9002efdbd60 EFLAGS: 00010246 RAX: 000000000000004c RBX: ffff88811923c4e0 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffffffff827e38b1 RDI: 00000000ffffffff RBP: ffff88810005d000 R08: 00000000ffffdfff R09: ffffffff831051c8 R10: ffffffff83055220 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: ffff8881c2458c00 R13: ffff88811923c540 R14: ffff88811923c5e8 R15: ffff8881c1bd9680 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88a04acd0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f907c7a918c CR3: 0000000004024000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0 Call Trace: <TASK> ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f btrfs_finish_ordered_io+0x4a/0x60 [btrfs] btrfs_work_helper+0xf9/0x490 [btrfs] process_one_work+0x204/0x590 ? srso_return_thunk+0x5/0x5f worker_thread+0x1d6/0x3d0 ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 kthread+0x118/0x230 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork+0x205/0x260 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 </TASK> Consider process A calling writepages() with WB_SYNC_NONE. In zoned mode or for compressed writes, it locks several folios for delalloc and starts writing them out. Let's call the last locked folio folio X. Suppose the write range only partially covers folio X, leaving some pages dirty. Process A calls btrfs_subpage_set_writeback() when building a bio. This function call clears the TOWRITE tag of folio X, whose size = 8K and the block size = 4K. It is following state. 0 4K 8K |/////|/////| (flag: DIRTY, tag: DIRTY) <-----> Process A will write this range. Now suppose process B concurrently calls writepages() with WB_SYNC_ALL. It calls tag_pages_for_writeback() to tag dirty folios with PAGECACHE_TAG_TOWRITE. Since folio X is still dirty, it gets tagged. Then, B collects tagged folios using filemap_get_folios_tag() and must wait for folio X to be written before returning from writepages(). 0 4K 8K |/////|/////| (flag: DIRTY, tag: DIRTY|TOWRITE) However, between tagging and collecting, process A may call btrfs_subpage_set_writeback() and clear folio X's TOWRITE tag. 0 4K 8K | |/////| (flag: DIRTY|WRITEBACK, tag: DIRTY) As a result, process B won't see folio X in its batch, and returns without waiting for it. This breaks the WB_SYNC_ALL ordering requirement. Fix this by using btrfs_subpage_set_writeback_keepwrite(), which retains the TOWRITE tag. We now manually clear the tag only after the folio becomes clean, via the xas operation.

It is possible to read the advisory at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2025-39779 since 04/16/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 264725 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2025-39779), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.12.44, 6.16.4 or 6.17-rc3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying a patch 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 (264725) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2040). Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Google Cloud Platform
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Fedora Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• RESF Rocky Linux
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• Proxmox Virtual Environment
• Proxmox Backup Server
• Dell Secure Connect Gateway
• IBM QRadar SIEM

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 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
• 6.12.9
• 6.12.10
• 6.12.11
• 6.12.12
• 6.12.13
• 6.12.14
• 6.12.15
• 6.12.16
• 6.12.17
• 6.12.18
• 6.12.19
• 6.12.20
• 6.12.21
• 6.12.22
• 6.12.23
• 6.12.24
• 6.12.25
• 6.12.26
• 6.12.27
• 6.12.28
• 6.12.29
• 6.12.30
• 6.12.31
• 6.12.32
• 6.12.33
• 6.12.34
• 6.12.35
• 6.12.36
• 6.12.37
• 6.12.38
• 6.12.39
• 6.12.40
• 6.12.41
• 6.12.42
• 6.12.43
• 6.16.0
• 6.16.1
• 6.16.2
• 6.16.3
• 6.17-rc1
• 6.17-rc2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Statistical analysis made it clear that VulDB provides the best quality for vulnerability data.

Discussion