Security Vulnerabilities
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
btrfs: do not strictly require dirty metadata threshold for metadata writepages
[BUG]
There is an internal report that over 1000 processes are
waiting at the io_schedule_timeout() of balance_dirty_pages(), causing
a system hang and trigger a kernel coredump.
The kernel is v6.4 kernel based, but the root problem still applies to
any upstream kernel before v6.18.
[CAUSE]
From Jan Kara for his wisdom on the dirty page balance behavior first.
This cgroup dirty limit was what was actually playing the role here
because the cgroup had only a small amount of memory and so the dirty
limit for it was something like 16MB.
Dirty throttling is responsible for enforcing that nobody can dirty
(significantly) more dirty memory than there's dirty limit. Thus when
a task is dirtying pages it periodically enters into balance_dirty_pages()
and we let it sleep there to slow down the dirtying.
When the system is over dirty limit already (either globally or within
a cgroup of the running task), we will not let the task exit from
balance_dirty_pages() until the number of dirty pages drops below the
limit.
So in this particular case, as I already mentioned, there was a cgroup
with relatively small amount of memory and as a result with dirty limit
set at 16MB. A task from that cgroup has dirtied about 28MB worth of
pages in btrfs btree inode and these were practically the only dirty
pages in that cgroup.
So that means the only way to reduce the dirty pages of that cgroup is
to writeback the dirty pages of btrfs btree inode, and only after that
those processes can exit balance_dirty_pages().
Now back to the btrfs part, btree_writepages() is responsible for
writing back dirty btree inode pages.
The problem here is, there is a btrfs internal threshold that if the
btree inode's dirty bytes are below the 32M threshold, it will not
do any writeback.
This behavior is to batch as much metadata as possible so we won't write
back those tree blocks and then later re-COW them again for another
modification.
This internal 32MiB is higher than the existing dirty page size (28MiB),
meaning no writeback will happen, causing a deadlock between btrfs and
cgroup:
- Btrfs doesn't want to write back btree inode until more dirty pages
- Cgroup/MM doesn't want more dirty pages for btrfs btree inode
Thus any process touching that btree inode is put into sleep until
the number of dirty pages is reduced.
Thanks Jan Kara a lot for the analysis of the root cause.
[ENHANCEMENT]
Since kernel commit b55102826d7d ("btrfs: set AS_KERNEL_FILE on the
btree_inode"), btrfs btree inode pages will only be charged to the root
cgroup which should have a much larger limit than btrfs' 32MiB
threshold.
So it should not affect newer kernels.
But for all current LTS kernels, they are all affected by this problem,
and backporting the whole AS_KERNEL_FILE may not be a good idea.
Even for newer kernels I still think it's a good idea to get
rid of the internal threshold at btree_writepages(), since for most cases
cgroup/MM has a better view of full system memory usage than btrfs' fixed
threshold.
For internal callers using btrfs_btree_balance_dirty() since that
function is already doing internal threshold check, we don't need to
bother them.
But for external callers of btree_writepages(), just respect their
requests and write back whatever they want, ignoring the internal
btrfs threshold to avoid such deadlock on btree inode dirty page
balancing.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
gpio: virtuser: fix UAF in configfs release path
The gpio-virtuser configfs release path uses guard(mutex) to protect
the device structure. However, the device is freed before the guard
cleanup runs, causing mutex_unlock() to operate on freed memory.
Specifically, gpio_virtuser_device_config_group_release() destroys
the mutex and frees the device while still inside the guard(mutex)
scope. When the function returns, the guard cleanup invokes
mutex_unlock(&dev->lock), resulting in a slab use-after-free.
Limit the mutex lifetime by using a scoped_guard() only around the
activation check, so that the lock is released before mutex_destroy()
and kfree() are called.
CVSS Score
7.8
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
bpf, test_run: Subtract size of xdp_frame from allowed metadata size
The xdp_frame structure takes up part of the XDP frame headroom,
limiting the size of the metadata. However, in bpf_test_run, we don't
take this into account, which makes it possible for userspace to supply
a metadata size that is too large (taking up the entire headroom).
If userspace supplies such a large metadata size in live packet mode,
the xdp_update_frame_from_buff() call in xdp_test_run_init_page() call
will fail, after which packet transmission proceeds with an
uninitialised frame structure, leading to the usual Bad Stuff.
The commit in the Fixes tag fixed a related bug where the second check
in xdp_update_frame_from_buff() could fail, but did not add any
additional constraints on the metadata size. Complete the fix by adding
an additional check on the metadata size. Reorder the checks slightly to
make the logic clearer and add a comment.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
btrfs: send: check for inline extents in range_is_hole_in_parent()
Before accessing the disk_bytenr field of a file extent item we need
to check if we are dealing with an inline extent.
This is because for inline extents their data starts at the offset of
the disk_bytenr field. So accessing the disk_bytenr
means we are accessing inline data or in case the inline data is less
than 8 bytes we can actually cause an invalid
memory access if this inline extent item is the first item in the leaf
or access metadata from other items.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/damon/sysfs-scheme: cleanup access_pattern subdirs on scheme dir setup failure
When a DAMOS-scheme DAMON sysfs directory setup fails after setup of
access_pattern/ directory, subdirectories of access_pattern/ directory are
not cleaned up. As a result, DAMON sysfs interface is nearly broken until
the system reboots, and the memory for the unremoved directory is leaked.
Cleanup the directories under such failures.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
virtio_net: Fix misalignment bug in struct virtnet_info
Use the new TRAILING_OVERLAP() helper to fix a misalignment bug
along with the following warning:
drivers/net/virtio_net.c:429:46: warning: structure containing a flexible array member is not at the end of another structure [-Wflex-array-member-not-at-end]
This helper creates a union between a flexible-array member (FAM)
and a set of members that would otherwise follow it (in this case
`u8 rss_hash_key_data[VIRTIO_NET_RSS_MAX_KEY_SIZE];`). This
overlays the trailing members (rss_hash_key_data) onto the FAM
(hash_key_data) while keeping the FAM and the start of MEMBERS aligned.
The static_assert() ensures this alignment remains.
Notice that due to tail padding in flexible `struct
virtio_net_rss_config_trailer`, `rss_trailer.hash_key_data`
(at offset 83 in struct virtnet_info) and `rss_hash_key_data` (at
offset 84 in struct virtnet_info) are misaligned by one byte. See
below:
struct virtio_net_rss_config_trailer {
__le16 max_tx_vq; /* 0 2 */
__u8 hash_key_length; /* 2 1 */
__u8 hash_key_data[]; /* 3 0 */
/* size: 4, cachelines: 1, members: 3 */
/* padding: 1 */
/* last cacheline: 4 bytes */
};
struct virtnet_info {
...
struct virtio_net_rss_config_trailer rss_trailer; /* 80 4 */
/* XXX last struct has 1 byte of padding */
u8 rss_hash_key_data[40]; /* 84 40 */
...
/* size: 832, cachelines: 13, members: 48 */
/* sum members: 801, holes: 8, sum holes: 31 */
/* paddings: 2, sum paddings: 5 */
};
After changes, those members are correctly aligned at offset 795:
struct virtnet_info {
...
union {
struct virtio_net_rss_config_trailer rss_trailer; /* 792 4 */
struct {
unsigned char __offset_to_hash_key_data[3]; /* 792 3 */
u8 rss_hash_key_data[40]; /* 795 40 */
}; /* 792 43 */
}; /* 792 44 */
...
/* size: 840, cachelines: 14, members: 47 */
/* sum members: 801, holes: 8, sum holes: 35 */
/* padding: 4 */
/* paddings: 1, sum paddings: 4 */
/* last cacheline: 8 bytes */
};
As a result, the RSS key passed to the device is shifted by 1
byte: the last byte is cut off, and instead a (possibly
uninitialized) byte is added at the beginning.
As a last note `struct virtio_net_rss_config_hdr *rss_hdr;` is also
moved to the end, since it seems those three members should stick
around together. :)
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mm/damon/sysfs: cleanup attrs subdirs on context dir setup failure
When a context DAMON sysfs directory setup is failed after setup of attrs/
directory, subdirectories of attrs/ directory are not cleaned up. As a
result, DAMON sysfs interface is nearly broken until the system reboots,
and the memory for the unremoved directory is leaked.
Cleanup the directories under such failures.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ext4: fix iloc.bh leak in ext4_xattr_inode_update_ref
The error branch for ext4_xattr_inode_update_ref forget to release the
refcount for iloc.bh. Find this when review code.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
Bluetooth: hci_uart: fix null-ptr-deref in hci_uart_write_work
hci_uart_set_proto() sets HCI_UART_PROTO_INIT before calling
hci_uart_register_dev(), which calls proto->open() to initialize
hu->priv. However, if a TTY write wakeup occurs during this window,
hci_uart_tx_wakeup() may schedule write_work before hu->priv is
initialized, leading to a NULL pointer dereference in
hci_uart_write_work() when proto->dequeue() accesses hu->priv.
The race condition is:
CPU0 CPU1
---- ----
hci_uart_set_proto()
set_bit(HCI_UART_PROTO_INIT)
hci_uart_register_dev()
tty write wakeup
hci_uart_tty_wakeup()
hci_uart_tx_wakeup()
schedule_work(&hu->write_work)
proto->open(hu)
// initializes hu->priv
hci_uart_write_work()
hci_uart_dequeue()
proto->dequeue(hu)
// accesses hu->priv (NULL!)
Fix this by moving set_bit(HCI_UART_PROTO_INIT) after proto->open()
succeeds, ensuring hu->priv is initialized before any work can be
scheduled.
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
btrfs: zlib: fix the folio leak on S390 hardware acceleration
[BUG]
After commit aa60fe12b4f4 ("btrfs: zlib: refactor S390x HW acceleration
buffer preparation"), we no longer release the folio of the page cache
of folio returned by btrfs_compress_filemap_get_folio() for S390
hardware acceleration path.
[CAUSE]
Before that commit, we call kumap_local() and folio_put() after handling
each folio.
Although the timing is not ideal (it release previous folio at the
beginning of the loop, and rely on some extra cleanup out of the loop),
it at least handles the folio release correctly.
Meanwhile the refactored code is easier to read, it lacks the call to
release the filemap folio.
[FIX]
Add the missing folio_put() for copy_data_into_buffer().
CVSS Score
5.5
EPSS Score
0.0
Published
2026-02-14