Linux Kernel up to 6.18.32/7.0.9 btrfs disk-io.c infinite loop

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as critical has been discovered in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.32/7.0.9. This affects an unknown part of the file disk-io.c of the component btrfs. Such manipulation leads to infinite loop. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2026-53284. There is no exploit available. It is advisable to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.18.32/7.0.9. It has been rated as critical. Affected by this issue is an unknown functionality of the file disk-io.c of the component btrfs. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a infinite loop vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-835. The product contains an iteration or loop with an exit condition that cannot be reached, i.e., an infinite loop. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: only release the dirty pages io tree after successful writes [WARNING] With extra warning on dirty extent buffers at umount (aka, the next patch in the series), test case generic/388 can trigger the following warning about dirty extent buffers at unmount time: BTRFS critical (device dm-2 state E): emergency shutdown BTRFS error (device dm-2 state E): error while writing out transaction: -30 BTRFS warning (device dm-2 state E): Skipping commit of aborted transaction. BTRFS error (device dm-2 state EA): Transaction 9 aborted (error -30) BTRFS: error (device dm-2 state EA) in cleanup_transaction:2068: errno=-30 Readonly filesystem BTRFS info (device dm-2 state EA): forced readonly BTRFS info (device dm-2 state EA): last unmount of filesystem 4fbf2e15-f941-49a0-bc7c-716315d2777c ------------[ cut here ]------------ WARNING: disk-io.c:3311 at invalidate_and_check_btree_folios+0xfd/0x1ca [btrfs], CPU#8: umount/914368 CPU: 8 UID: 0 PID: 914368 Comm: umount Tainted: G OE 7.1.0-rc1-custom+ #372 PREEMPT(full) 2de38db8d1deae71fde295430a0ff3ab98ccf596 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS unknown 02/02/2022 RIP: 0010:invalidate_and_check_btree_folios+0xfd/0x1ca [btrfs] Call Trace: close_ctree+0x52e/0x574 [btrfs d2f0b1cd330d1287e7a9919d112eadfc0e914efd] generic_shutdown_super+0x89/0x1a0 kill_anon_super+0x16/0x40 btrfs_kill_super+0x16/0x20 [btrfs d2f0b1cd330d1287e7a9919d112eadfc0e914efd] deactivate_locked_super+0x2d/0xb0 cleanup_mnt+0xdc/0x140 task_work_run+0x5a/0xa0 exit_to_user_mode_loop+0x123/0x4b0 do_syscall_64+0x243/0x7c0 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x4b/0x53 ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- BTRFS warning (device dm-2 state EA): unable to release extent buffer 30539776 owner 9 gen 9 refs 2 flags 0x7 BTRFS warning (device dm-2 state EA): unable to release extent buffer 30621696 owner 257 gen 9 refs 2 flags 0x7 BTRFS warning (device dm-2 state EA): unable to release extent buffer 30638080 owner 258 gen 9 refs 2 flags 0x7 BTRFS warning (device dm-2 state EA): unable to release extent buffer 30654464 owner 7 gen 9 refs 2 flags 0x7 BTRFS warning (device dm-2 state EA): unable to release extent buffer 30703616 owner 2 gen 9 refs 2 flags 0x7 BTRFS warning (device dm-2 state EA): unable to release extent buffer 30720000 owner 10 gen 9 refs 2 flags 0x7 BTRFS warning (device dm-2 state EA): unable to release extent buffer 30736384 owner 4 gen 9 refs 2 flags 0x7 BTRFS warning (device dm-2 state EA): unable to release extent buffer 30752768 owner 11 gen 9 refs 2 flags 0x7 I'm using a stripped down version, which seems to trigger the warning more reliably: _fsstress_pid="" workload() { dmesg -C mkfs.btrfs -f -K $dev > /dev/null echo 1 > /sys/kernel/debug/clear_warn_once mount $dev $mnt $fsstress -w -n 1024 -p 4 -d $mnt & _fsstress_pid=$! sleep 0 $godown $mnt pkill --echo -PIPE fsstress > /dev/null wait $_fsstress_pid unset _fsstress_pid umount $mnt if dmesg | grep -q "WARNING"; then fail fi } for (( i = 0; i < $runtime; i++ )); do echo "=== $i/$runtime ===" workload done [CAUSE] Inside btrfs_write_and_wait_transaction(), we first try to write all dirty ebs, then wait for them to finish. After that we call btrfs_extent_io_tree_release() to free all extent states from dirty_pages io tree. However if we hit an error from btrfs_write_marked_extent(), then we still call btrfs_extent_io_tree_release() to clear that dirty_pages io tree, which may contain dirty records that we haven't yet submitted. Furthermore, the later transaction cleanup path will utilize that dirty_pages io tree to properly cleanup those dirty ebs, but since it's already empty, no dirty ebs are properly cleaned up, thus will later trigger the warnings inside invalidate_btree_folios(). ---truncated---

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-53284 since 06/09/2026. The exploitation is known to be difficult. Technical details are known, but there is no available exploit.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 323593 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-53284), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.18.33 or 7.0.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 9ebb7eba1237dc198768b9c76506a79f924c82bb/df03d67dc63722845cb9fe59d815d1225b04fd54/4066c55e109475a06d18a1f127c939d551211956 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 (323593). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 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
• 6.18.20
• 6.18.21
• 6.18.22
• 6.18.23
• 6.18.24
• 6.18.25
• 6.18.26
• 6.18.27
• 6.18.28
• 6.18.29
• 6.18.30
• 6.18.31
• 6.18.32
• 7.0.0
• 7.0.1
• 7.0.2
• 7.0.3
• 7.0.4
• 7.0.5
• 7.0.6
• 7.0.7
• 7.0.8
• 7.0.9

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

If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Discussion