Vulnerability · Published Feb 28, 2024 · Assigned by Linux
CVE-2021-46987btrfs: fix deadlock when cloning inline extents and using qgroups
Medium 5.5
In plain English
A medium-severity security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 8% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official 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 packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | linux | 5.14.6-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Debian:13 | linux | 5.14.6-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Debian:14 | linux | 5.14.6-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-allwinner-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-aws-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-aws-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-fde-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-azure-fde-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gcp-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-gcp-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-hwe-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-hwe-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-intel-iot-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-nvidia-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-5.17 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.0 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-oem-6.1 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | linux-raspi-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-realtime | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-riscv | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-riscv-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-starfive-5.19 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | linux-starfive-6.2 | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2021-46987 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Linux | Linux | c53e9653605dbf708f5be02902de51831be4b009 – before f8fbbd06fab9b75dcd68d850fe318ac3bc128974c53e9653605dbf708f5be02902de51831be4b009 – before d5347827d0b4b2250cbce6eccaa1c81dc78d8651c53e9653605dbf708f5be02902de51831be4b009 – before 96157707c0420e3d3edfe046f1cc797fee117adec53e9653605dbf708f5be02902de51831be4b009 – before f9baa501b4fd6962257853d46ddffbc21f27e34436af2de520cca7c37974cc4944b47850f6c460ee5.4.141 – before 5.5 |
| Linux | Linux | 5.9 |
References
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f8fbbd06fab9b75dcd68d850fe318ac3bc128974
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d5347827d0b4b2250cbce6eccaa1c81dc78d8651
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/96157707c0420e3d3edfe046f1cc797fee117ade
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f9baa501b4fd6962257853d46ddffbc21f27e344
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2025/10/msg00007.html