CVE-2022-49547
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix deadlock between concurrent dio writes when low on free data space When reserving data space for a direct IO write we can end up deadlocking if we have multiple tasks attempting a write to the same file range, there are multiple extents covered by that file range, we are low on available space for data and the writes don't expand the inode's i_size. The deadlock can happen like this: 1) We have a file with an i_size of 1M, at offset 0 it has an extent with a size of 128K and at offset 128K it has another extent also with a size of 128K; 2) Task A does a direct IO write against file range [0, 256K), and because the write is within the i_size boundary, it takes the inode's lock (VFS level) in shared mode; 3) Task A locks the file range [0, 256K) at btrfs_dio_iomap_begin(), and then gets the extent map for the extent covering the range [0, 128K). At btrfs_get_blocks_direct_write(), it creates an ordered extent for that file range ([0, 128K)); 4) Before returning from btrfs_dio_iomap_begin(), it unlocks the file range [0, 256K); 5) Task A executes btrfs_dio_iomap_begin() again, this time for the file range [128K, 256K), and locks the file range [128K, 256K); 6) Task B starts a direct IO write against file range [0, 256K) as well. It also locks the inode in shared mode, as it's within the i_size limit, and then tries to lock file range [0, 256K). It is able to lock the subrange [0, 128K) but then blocks waiting for the range [128K, 256K), as it is currently locked by task A; 7) Task A enters btrfs_get_blocks_direct_write() and tries to reserve data space. Because we are low on available free space, it triggers the async data reclaim task, and waits for it to reserve data space; 8) The async reclaim task decides to wait for all existing ordered extents to complete (through btrfs_wait_ordered_roots()). It finds the ordered extent previously created by task A for the file range [0, 128K) and waits for it to complete; 9) The ordered extent for the file range [0, 128K) can not complete because it blocks at btrfs_finish_ordered_io() when trying to lock the file range [0, 128K). This results in a deadlock, because: - task B is holding the file range [0, 128K) locked, waiting for the range [128K, 256K) to be unlocked by task A; - task A is holding the file range [128K, 256K) locked and it's waiting for the async data reclaim task to satisfy its space reservation request; - the async data reclaim task is waiting for ordered extent [0, 128K) to complete, but the ordered extent can not complete because the file range [0, 128K) is currently locked by task B, which is waiting on task A to unlock file range [128K, 256K) and task A waiting on the async data reclaim task. This results in a deadlock between 4 task: task A, task B, the async data reclaim task and the task doing ordered extent completion (a work queue task). This type of deadlock can sporadically be triggered by the test case generic/300 from fstests, and results in a stack trace like the following: [12084.033689] INFO: task kworker/u16:7:123749 blocked for more than 241 seconds. [12084.034877] Not tainted 5.18.0-rc2-btrfs-next-115 #1 [12084.035562] "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. [12084.036548] task:kworker/u16:7 state:D stack: 0 pid:123749 ppid: 2 flags:0x00004000 [12084.036554] Workqueue: btrfs-flush_delalloc btrfs_work_helper [btrfs] [12084.036599] Call Trace: [12084.036601] <TASK> [12084.036606] __schedule+0x3cb/0xed0 [12084.036616] schedule+0x4e/0xb0 [12084.036620] btrfs_start_ordered_extent+0x109/0x1c0 [btrfs] [12084.036651] ? prepare_to_wait_exclusive+0xc0/0xc0 [12084.036659] btrfs_run_ordered_extent_work+0x1a/0x30 [btrfs] [12084.036688] btrfs_work_helper+0xf8/0x400 [btrfs] [12084.0367 ---truncated---
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysisShared resources are accessed without correct locking, so concurrent operations interleave into inconsistent — and sometimes exploitable — states, or deadlock the service outright. These bugs are subtle and timing-dependent. The fix is correct, consistent locking or atomic operations around every shared resource.
General guidance for the improper locking class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data>= 5.15.27, < 5.16>= 5.16.13, < 5.18.3CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- Low
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- None
- Integrity
- None
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
dbcve · scoped5.165.18.3
Linux Kernel 5.18.3 or later (or the equivalent stable kernel version for your distribution)
- Upgrade the Linux kernel to version 5.18.3 or later, which contains the fix for this deadlock vulnerability in the Btrfs filesystem.
- Verify the kernel version after upgrade using `uname -r` or `cat /proc/version`.
- If upgrading the kernel is not immediately feasible, ensure the system has sufficient free data space to reduce the likelihood of triggering the deadlock condition.
- The deadlock occurs specifically when the system is low on free data space during concurrent direct IO writes to the same file range with multiple extents.
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2022-49547 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2022-49547 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
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