Linux KernelOperating system · Linux
CVE-2026-53122
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 reflink and transaction commit when using flushoncommit When using the flushoncommit mount option, we can have a deadlock between a transaction commit and a reflink operation that copied an inline extent to an offset beyond the current i_size of the destination node. The deadlock happens like this: 1) Task A clones an inline extent from inode X to an offset of inode Y that is beyond Y's current i_size. This means we copied the inline extent's data to a folio of inode Y that is beyond its EOF, using a call to copy_inline_to_page(); 2) Task B starts a transaction commit and calls btrfs_start_delalloc_flush() to flush delalloc; 3) The delalloc flushing sees the new dirty folio of inode Y and when it attempts to flush it, it ends up at extent_writepage() and sees that the offset of the folio is beyond the i_size of inode Y, so it attempts to invalidate the folio by calling folio_invalidate(), which ends up at btrfs' folio invalidate callback - btrfs_invalidate_folio(). There it tries to lock the folio's range in inode Y's extent io tree, but it blocks since it's currently locked by task A - during a reflink we lock the inodes and the source and destination ranges after flushing all delalloc and waiting for ordered extent completion - after that we don't expect to have dirty folios in the ranges, the exception is if we have to copy an inline extent's data (because the destination offset is not zero); 4) Task A then attempts to start a transaction to update the inode item, and then it's blocked since the current transaction is in the TRANS_STATE_COMMIT_START state. Therefore task A has to wait for the current transaction to become unblocked (its state >= TRANS_STATE_UNBLOCKED). So task A is waiting for the transaction commit done by task B, and the later waiting on the extent lock of inode Y that is currently held by task A. Syzbot recently reported this with the following stack traces: INFO: task kworker/u8:7:1053 blocked for more than 143 seconds. Not tainted syzkaller #0 "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. task:kworker/u8:7 state:D stack:23520 pid:1053 tgid:1053 ppid:2 task_flags:0x4208060 flags:0x00080000 Workqueue: writeback wb_workfn (flush-btrfs-46) Call Trace: <TASK> context_switch kernel/sched/core.c:5298 [inline] __schedule+0x1553/0x5240 kernel/sched/core.c:6911 __schedule_loop kernel/sched/core.c:6993 [inline] schedule+0x164/0x360 kernel/sched/core.c:7008 wait_extent_bit fs/btrfs/extent-io-tree.c:811 [inline] btrfs_lock_extent_bits+0x59c/0x700 fs/btrfs/extent-io-tree.c:1914 btrfs_lock_extent fs/btrfs/extent-io-tree.h:152 [inline] btrfs_invalidate_folio+0x43d/0xc40 fs/btrfs/inode.c:7704 extent_writepage fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:1852 [inline] extent_write_cache_pages fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:2580 [inline] btrfs_writepages+0x12ff/0x2440 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:2713 do_writepages+0x32e/0x550 mm/page-writeback.c:2554 __writeback_single_inode+0x133/0x11a0 fs/fs-writeback.c:1750 writeback_sb_inodes+0x995/0x19d0 fs/fs-writeback.c:2042 wb_writeback+0x456/0xb70 fs/fs-writeback.c:2227 wb_do_writeback fs/fs-writeback.c:2374 [inline] wb_workfn+0x41a/0xf60 fs/fs-writeback.c:2414 process_one_work kernel/workqueue.c:3276 [inline] process_scheduled_works+0xb6e/0x18c0 kernel/workqueue.c:3359 worker_thread+0xa53/0xfc0 kernel/workqueue.c:3440 kthread+0x388/0x470 kernel/kthread.c:436 ret_from_fork+0x51e/0xb90 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:158 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:245 </TASK> INFO: task syz.4.64:6910 blocked for more than 143 seconds. Not tainted syzkaller #0 "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. task:syz.4.64 state:D stack:22752 pid:6910 tgid: ---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 analysis · high confidenceA deadlock vulnerability in btrfs filesystem occurs when using the flushoncommit mount option. A reflink operation that copies an inline extent to an offset beyond the destination inode's i_size holds an extent lock while a concurrent transaction commit attempts to flush and invalidate the dirty folio, causing a circular wait condition.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
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
Linux KernelOperating system
>= 5.7, < 6.12.91>= 6.13, < 6.18.33>= 6.19, < 7.0.10CVSS 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
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if btrfs is in useRun 'mount | grep btrfs' or check /proc/mounts for btrfs filesystem entriesAffected if No btrfs filesystems are mounted means not affected
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Check if flushoncommit mount option is enabledRun 'mount' or inspect /proc/mounts and look for 'flushoncommit' in the mount options for btrfs filesystemsAffected if The flushoncommit mount option must be present for the deadlock condition to apply
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Check kernel versionRun 'uname -r' to get the running kernel version and compare against the affected ranges: >= 5.7 and < 6.12.91; >= 6.13 and < 6.18.33; >= 6.19 and < 7.0.10Affected if Kernel version falls within any of the affected version ranges
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Check for reflink-capable workloadReview whether the workload uses reflink operations on btrfs (for example, 'cp --reflink=always', btrfs clone ioctl, or operations that copy inline extents beyond EOF)Affected if Reflink operations on inline extents beyond the destination inode i_size combined with flushoncommit could trigger the deadlock
A system is affected if it runs a vulnerable kernel version, has btrfs mounted with flushoncommit enabled, and performs reflink operations that copy inline extents beyond EOF concurrently with transaction commits
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 · scoped6.12.916.18.337.0.10
Apply the upstream kernel patch for this issue. Until patched, avoid using the flushoncommit mount option with workloads that perform reflink operations on inline extents beyond EOF.
Linux Kernel 7.0.10 or later (alternatively: 6.18.33+ or 6.12.91+)
- Backup all critical data before kernel upgrade
- Obtain the fixed kernel version from your distribution or kernel.org (6.12.91, 6.18.33, or 7.0.10 or later)
- Install the new kernel following your distribution's standard upgrade procedure
- Reboot the system to load the new kernel
- Verify the kernel version is running: uname -r
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
Fix this in Linux Kernel
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation8.0 h
- Implementation16.0 h
- Testing12.0 h
- Review / QA8.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $12,352.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-53122 — 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-2026-53122 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
No notes yet
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