CVE-2021-46987

btrfs: fix deadlock when cloning inline extents and using qgroups

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS Score
Published: February 28, 2024 at 08:13 AM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 04:16 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
MEDIUM5.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix deadlock when cloning inline extents and using qgroups There are a few exceptional cases where cloning an inline extent needs to copy the inline extent data into a page of the destination inode. When this happens, we end up starting a transaction while having a dirty page for the destination inode and while having the range locked in the destination's inode iotree too. Because when reserving metadata space for a transaction we may need to flush existing delalloc in case there is not enough free space, we have a mechanism in place to prevent a deadlock, which was introduced in commit 3d45f221ce627d ("btrfs: fix deadlock when cloning inline extent and low on free metadata space"). However when using qgroups, a transaction also reserves metadata qgroup space, which can also result in flushing delalloc in case there is not enough available space at the moment. When this happens we deadlock, since flushing delalloc requires locking the file range in the inode's iotree and the range was already locked at the very beginning of the clone operation, before attempting to start the transaction. When this issue happens, stack traces like the following are reported: [72747.556262] task:kworker/u81:9 state:D stack: 0 pid: 225 ppid: 2 flags:0x00004000 [72747.556268] Workqueue: writeback wb_workfn (flush-btrfs-1142) [72747.556271] Call Trace: [72747.556273] __schedule+0x296/0x760 [72747.556277] schedule+0x3c/0xa0 [72747.556279] io_schedule+0x12/0x40 [72747.556284] __lock_page+0x13c/0x280 [72747.556287] ? generic_file_readonly_mmap+0x70/0x70 [72747.556325] extent_write_cache_pages+0x22a/0x440 [btrfs] [72747.556331] ? __set_page_dirty_nobuffers+0xe7/0x160 [72747.556358] ? set_extent_buffer_dirty+0x5e/0x80 [btrfs] [72747.556362] ? update_group_capacity+0x25/0x210 [72747.556366] ? cpumask_next_and+0x1a/0x20 [72747.556391] extent_writepages+0x44/0xa0 [btrfs] [72747.556394] do_writepages+0x41/0xd0 [72747.556398] __writeback_single_inode+0x39/0x2a0 [72747.556403] writeback_sb_inodes+0x1ea/0x440 [72747.556407] __writeback_inodes_wb+0x5f/0xc0 [72747.556410] wb_writeback+0x235/0x2b0 [72747.556414] ? get_nr_inodes+0x35/0x50 [72747.556417] wb_workfn+0x354/0x490 [72747.556420] ? newidle_balance+0x2c5/0x3e0 [72747.556424] process_one_work+0x1aa/0x340 [72747.556426] worker_thread+0x30/0x390 [72747.556429] ? create_worker+0x1a0/0x1a0 [72747.556432] kthread+0x116/0x130 [72747.556435] ? kthread_park+0x80/0x80 [72747.556438] ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 [72747.566958] Workqueue: btrfs-flush_delalloc btrfs_work_helper [btrfs] [72747.566961] Call Trace: [72747.566964] __schedule+0x296/0x760 [72747.566968] ? finish_wait+0x80/0x80 [72747.566970] schedule+0x3c/0xa0 [72747.566995] wait_extent_bit.constprop.68+0x13b/0x1c0 [btrfs] [72747.566999] ? finish_wait+0x80/0x80 [72747.567024] lock_extent_bits+0x37/0x90 [btrfs] [72747.567047] btrfs_invalidatepage+0x299/0x2c0 [btrfs] [72747.567051] ? find_get_pages_range_tag+0x2cd/0x380 [72747.567076] __extent_writepage+0x203/0x320 [btrfs] [72747.567102] extent_write_cache_pages+0x2bb/0x440 [btrfs] [72747.567106] ? update_load_avg+0x7e/0x5f0 [72747.567109] ? enqueue_entity+0xf4/0x6f0 [72747.567134] extent_writepages+0x44/0xa0 [btrfs] [72747.567137] ? enqueue_task_fair+0x93/0x6f0 [72747.567140] do_writepages+0x41/0xd0 [72747.567144] __filemap_fdatawrite_range+0xc7/0x100 [72747.567167] btrfs_run_delalloc_work+0x17/0x40 [btrfs] [72747.567195] btrfs_work_helper+0xc2/0x300 [btrfs] [72747.567200] process_one_work+0x1aa/0x340 [72747.567202] worker_thread+0x30/0x390 [72747.567205] ? create_worker+0x1a0/0x1a0 [72747.567208] kthread+0x116/0x130 [72747.567211] ? kthread_park+0x80/0x80 [72747.567214] ret_from_fork+0x1f/0x30 [72747.569686] task:fsstress state:D stack: ---truncated---

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v ≥ 5.4.1415.12 ≤ v < 5.12.55.4.141 ≤ v < 5.55.9 ≤ v < 5.10.2415.9 ≤ v < 5.11.225.9 ≤ v < 5.12.55.9 ≤ v < 5.1336af2de520cca7c37974cc4944b47850f6c460ee5.13 rc15.4.141c53e9653605dbf708f5be02902de51831be4b009
Vendor states this is fixed in 96157707c0420e3d3edfe046f1cc797fee117ade (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in d5347827d0b4b2250cbce6eccaa1c81dc78d8651 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in f8fbbd06fab9b75dcd68d850fe318ac3bc128974 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in f9baa501b4fd6962257853d46ddffbc21f27e344 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.10.241 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.11.22 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.12.5 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.13 (unaffected)
Affected range stops below 5.5, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Vendor states this is fixed in 5.9 (unaffected)

References (5)

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-667

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