Linux Kernel up to 7.0-rc4 btrfs privilege escalation

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as problematic has been identified in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.129/6.12.77/6.18.19/6.19.9/7.0-rc4. The impacted element is an unknown function of the component btrfs. The manipulation results in an unknown weakness. This vulnerability is cataloged as CVE-2026-23465. There is no exploit available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.6.129/6.12.77/6.18.19/6.19.9/7.0-rc4. It has been classified as problematic. Affected is an unknown code block of the component btrfs. The impact remains unknown. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: log new dentries when logging parent dir of a conflicting inode If we log the parent directory of a conflicting inode, we are not logging the new dentries of the directory, so when we finish we have the parent directory's inode marked as logged but we did not log its new dentries. As a consequence if the parent directory is explicitly fsynced later and it does not have any new changes since we logged it, the fsync is a no-op and after a power failure the new dentries are missing. Example scenario: $ mkdir foo $ sync $rmdir foo $ mkdir dir1 $ mkdir dir2 # A file with the same name and parent as the directory we just deleted # and was persisted in a past transaction. So the deleted directory's # inode is a conflicting inode of this new file's inode. $ touch foo $ ln foo dir2/link # The fsync on dir2 will log the parent directory (".") because the # conflicting inode (deleted directory) does not exists anymore, but it # it does not log its new dentries (dir1). $ xfs_io -c "fsync" dir2 # This fsync on the parent directory is no-op, since the previous fsync # logged it (but without logging its new dentries). $ xfs_io -c "fsync" . <power failure> # After log replay dir1 is missing. Fix this by ensuring we log new dir dentries whenever we log the parent directory of a no longer existing conflicting inode. A test case for fstests will follow soon.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-23465 since 01/13/2026. 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 05/20/2026).

Upgrading to version 6.6.130, 6.12.78, 6.18.20, 6.19.10 or 7.0-rc5 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 56e72c8b02d982be775d9df025357c152383ee84/f556b1e09d054e31f464c0fd37280c2b5a393fee/1cf30c73602c69d750c9345c47f2c0e9d0cfb578/6f5a51969b1deb79aefd2194b48fe7e78e72ff7e/9573a365ff9ff45da9222d3fe63695ce562beb24 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.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.6.129
• 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
• 6.12.44
• 6.12.45
• 6.12.46
• 6.12.47
• 6.12.48
• 6.12.49
• 6.12.50
• 6.12.51
• 6.12.52
• 6.12.53
• 6.12.54
• 6.12.55
• 6.12.56
• 6.12.57
• 6.12.58
• 6.12.59
• 6.12.60
• 6.12.61
• 6.12.62
• 6.12.63
• 6.12.64
• 6.12.65
• 6.12.66
• 6.12.67
• 6.12.68
• 6.12.69
• 6.12.70
• 6.12.71
• 6.12.72
• 6.12.73
• 6.12.74
• 6.12.75
• 6.12.76
• 6.12.77
• 6.18.0
• 6.18.1
• 6.18.2
• 6.18.3
• 6.18.4
• 6.18.5
• 6.18.6
• 6.18.7
• 6.18.8
• 6.18.9
• 6.18.10
• 6.18.11
• 6.18.12
• 6.18.13
• 6.18.14
• 6.18.15
• 6.18.16
• 6.18.17
• 6.18.18
• 6.18.19
• 6.19.0
• 6.19.1
• 6.19.2
• 6.19.3
• 6.19.4
• 6.19.5
• 6.19.6
• 6.19.7
• 6.19.8
• 6.19.9
• 7.0-rc1
• 7.0-rc2
• 7.0-rc3
• 7.0-rc4

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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