Cloudanix VulnDB

CVE-2024-38306

None

CVSS

—

EPSS

0.1%

Published

Jun 25, 2024

CISA due date

—

Cloudanix analysis

Schedule a fix SSVC: Track

A flaw in Linux file-system handling can cause computers to crash unexpectedly when performing routine file operations under memory pressure.

Exploitation
Local Privilege
Attacker needs
Local User
Complexity
Moderate
Impact
Denial Of Service
Component
OS kernel
Class
Race Condition
Remediation
Upgrade
Effort
Medium
Patch risk
Low

What it actually does

Race condition during Btrfs extent buffer folio allocation and release allows concurrent folio_detach_private calls without i_private_lock protection, causing double folio_put and refcount underflow that triggers BUG_ON on page->mapping.

Why it matters to the business

Unpatched Linux systems using Btrfs may experience sporadic kernel crashes during memory pressure and file operations, leading to downtime, potential data loss, and operational disruption on servers or desktops with heavy I/O workloads.

How an attack unfolds

A local attacker or unprivileged process triggers concurrent Btrfs extent buffer allocation and middle-page release by performing tar archives while repeatedly dropping caches and compacting memory; the narrow race between folio_test_private and folio_clear_private under memory pressure leads to refcount underflow and kernel panic.

How to fix it

Upgrade the Linux kernel to version 6.9.5 or apply commit 952f048eb901881a7cc6f7c1368b53cd386ead7b; rebuild and reboot into the fixed kernel; for older stable trees apply the equivalent backport that moves attach logic under i_private_lock and adds the lockdep assertion.

How to confirm the fix worked

Confirm running kernel contains commit 952f048eb901881a7cc6f7c1368b53cd386ead7b or is at least 6.9.5; reproduce the supplied drop_caches + tar workload under instrumentation and verify absence of double-put and bad-page-state crashes; inspect attach_eb_folio_to_filemap for the lockdep_assert_locked call.

Typical attack path

  1. Obtain local execution on a Btrfs-formatted system
  2. Run memory-pressure workload (drop_caches + compact_memory loop)
  3. Trigger parallel Btrfs metadata operations (tar loops over mounted filesystem)
  4. Hit the alloc_extent_buffer vs btree_release_folio race on a multi-page extent buffer
  5. Cause folio refcount underflow and kernel BUG

How to detect it

Search kernel logs (dmesg, journalctl, /var/log/kern.log) for 'BUG: Bad page state', 'btree_aops', 'folio_detach_private', or 'refcount underflow' messages occurring during kswapd or heavy tar-like workloads; correlate with Btrfs filesystem activity and memory-pressure events.

  • BUG: Bad page state in process kswapd0
  • aops:btree_aops ino:1
  • flags: 0x17ffffe0000008
  • page dumped because: non-NULL mapping
  • folio_detach_private

What your security team should do

  • Prioritize kernel upgrade to 6.9.5+ on all Btrfs hosts within normal patch windows
  • Monitor for kernel BUG messages referencing btree_aops and bad page state
  • Consider temporary mitigation via increased vm.min_free_kbytes or reduced Btrfs metadata workloads if immediate patching is delayed
  • Add the fixed commit to automated kernel build pipelines and regression test suites

The record

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: protect folio::private when attaching extent buffer folios [BUG] Since v6.8 there are rare kernel crashes reported by various people, the common factor is bad page status error messages like this: BUG: Bad page state in process kswapd0 pfn:d6e840 page: refcount:0 mapcount:0 mapping:000000007512f4f2 index:0x2796c2c7c pfn:0xd6e840 aops:btree_aops ino:1 flags: 0x17ffffe0000008(uptodate|node=0|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x3fffff) page_type: 0xffffffff() raw: 0017ffffe0000008 dead000000000100 dead000000000122 ffff88826d0be4c0 raw: 00000002796c2c7c 0000000000000000 00000000ffffffff 0000000000000000 page dumped because: non-NULL mapping [CAUSE] Commit 09e6cef19c9f ("btrfs: refactor alloc_extent_buffer() to allocate-then-attach method") changes the sequence when allocating a new extent buffer. Previously we always called grab_extent_buffer() under mapping->i_private_lock, to ensure the safety on modification on folio::private (which is a pointer to extent buffer for regular sectorsize). This can lead to the following race: Thread A is trying to allocate an extent buffer at bytenr X, with 4 4K pages, meanwhile thread B is trying to release the page at X + 4K (the second page of the extent buffer at X). Thread A | Thread B -----------------------------------+------------------------------------- | btree_release_folio() | | This is for the page at X + 4K, | | Not page X. | | alloc_extent_buffer() | |- release_extent_buffer() |- filemap_add_folio() for the | | |- atomic_dec_and_test(eb->refs) | page at bytenr X (the first | | | | page). | | | | Which returned -EEXIST. | | | | | | | |- filemap_lock_folio() | | | | Returned the first page locked. | | | | | | | |- grab_extent_buffer() | | | | |- atomic_inc_not_zero() | | | | | Returned false | | | | |- folio_detach_private() | | |- folio_detach_private() for X | |- folio_test_private() | | |- folio_test_private() | Returned true | | | Returned true |- folio_put() | |- folio_put() Now there are two puts on the same folio at folio X, leading to refcount underflow of the folio X, and eventually causing the BUG_ON() on the page->mapping. The condition is not that easy to hit: - The release must be triggered for the middle page of an eb If the release is on the same first page of an eb, page lock would kick in and prevent the race. - folio_detach_private() has a very small race window It's only between folio_test_private() and folio_clear_private(). That's exactly when mapping->i_private_lock is used to prevent such race, and commit 09e6cef19c9f ("btrfs: refactor alloc_extent_buffer() to allocate-then-attach method") screwed that up. At that time, I thought the page lock would kick in as filemap_release_folio() also requires the page to be locked, but forgot the filemap_release_folio() only locks one page, not all pages of an extent buffer. [FIX] Move all the code requiring i_private_lock into attach_eb_folio_to_filemap(), so that everything is done with proper lock protection. Furthermore to prevent future problems, add an extra lockdep_assert_locked() to ensure we're holding the proper lock. To reproducer that is able to hit the race (takes a few minutes with instrumented code inserting delays to alloc_extent_buffer()): #!/bin/sh drop_caches () { while(true); do echo 3 > /proc/sys/vm/drop_caches echo 1 > /proc/sys/vm/compact_memory done } run_tar () { while(true); do for x in `seq 1 80` ; do tar cf /dev/zero /mnt > /dev/null & done wait done } mkfs.btrfs -f -d single -m single ---truncated---

Affected packages

Ecosystem Package Introduced Fixed
Debian:13 linux 0 6.9.7-1
Debian:14 linux 0 6.9.7-1
Linux Kernel 6.8.0 6.9.5
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS linux-hwe-edge 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-aws-5.0 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-aws-5.3 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-azure 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-azure-5.3 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-azure-edge 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-gcp 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.3 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-gke-4.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-gke-5.4 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-gkeop-5.4 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-hwe 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-hwe-edge 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-oem 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-oracle-5.0 0 No fix
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS linux-oracle-5.3 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-aws 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-aws-5.11 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-aws-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-aws-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-aws-5.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure-5.11 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure-5.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure-fde 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-azure-fde-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-bluefield 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gcp 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.11 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gke 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gke-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gkeop 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-gkeop-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-hwe-5.11 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-hwe-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-hwe-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-hwe-5.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-ibm 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-ibm-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-intel-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-intel-iotg-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-iot 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-kvm 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oem-5.10 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oem-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oem-5.14 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oem-5.6 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oracle 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oracle-5.11 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oracle-5.13 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oracle-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-oracle-5.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-raspi 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-raspi2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-riscv 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-riscv-5.11 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-riscv-5.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-riscv-5.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS linux-xilinx-zynqmp 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-allwinner-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-aws 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-aws-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-aws-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-aws-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-aws-6.8 0 6.8.0-1015.16~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-6.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-6.8 0 6.8.0-1014.16~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-fde 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-fde-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-azure-fde-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gcp 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gcp-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gcp-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gcp-6.8 0 6.8.0-1014.16~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gke 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-gkeop 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-hwe-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-hwe-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-hwe-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-hwe-6.8 0 6.8.0-45.45~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-ibm 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-ibm-6.8 0 6.8.0-1012.12~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-intel-iot-realtime 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-intel-iotg 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-kvm 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-lowlatency 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-lowlatency-hwe-6.8 0 6.8.0-44.44.1~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-nvidia 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-nvidia-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-nvidia-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-nvidia-6.8 0 6.8.0-1013.14~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-nvidia-tegra 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-nvidia-tegra-igx 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oem-5.17 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oem-6.0 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oem-6.1 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oem-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oracle 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oracle-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-oracle-6.8 0 6.8.0-1012.12~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-raspi 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-realtime 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-riscv 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-riscv-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-riscv-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-riscv-6.8 0 6.8.0-44.44.1~22.04.1
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-starfive-5.19 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-starfive-6.2 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-starfive-6.5 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS linux-xilinx-zynqmp 0 No fix
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS:for:NVIDIA:BlueField linux-bluefield 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux 0 6.8.0-44.44
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-aws 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-aws 0 6.8.0-1015.16
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-azure 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-azure 0 6.8.0-1014.16
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-gcp 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-gcp 0 6.8.0-1014.16
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-gke 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-gke 0 6.8.0-1010.13
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-gkeop 0 6.8.0-1001.3
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-ibm 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-ibm 0 6.8.0-1012.12
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-intel 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-lowlatency 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-lowlatency 0 6.8.0-44.44.1
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-nvidia 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-nvidia 0 6.8.0-1013.14
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-nvidia-lowlatency 0 6.8.0-1013.14.1
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-oem-6.11 0 6.11.0-1007.7
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-oem-6.8 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-oem-6.8 0 6.8.0-1012.12
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-oracle 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-oracle 0 6.8.0-1012.12
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-raspi 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-raspi 0 6.8.0-1011.12
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-raspi-realtime 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-realtime 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-riscv 0 No fix
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS linux-riscv 0 6.8.0-44.44.1
Ubuntu:24.10 linux 0 6.11.0-7.7
Ubuntu:24.10 linux-aws 0 6.11.0-1002.2
Ubuntu:24.10 linux-azure 0 6.11.0-1003.3
Ubuntu:24.10 linux-gcp 0 6.11.0-1001.1
Ubuntu:24.10 linux-lowlatency 0 6.11.0-1002.2
Ubuntu:24.10 linux-oracle 0 6.11.0-1004.4
Ubuntu:24.10 linux-raspi 0 6.11.0-1003.3
Ubuntu:24.10 linux-realtime 0 6.11.0-1001.1
Ubuntu:24.10 linux-riscv 0 6.11.0-8.8.1
Ubuntu:Nvidia-BlueField:22.04:LTS linux-bluefield 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS linux 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS linux-aws 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS linux-azure 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:14.04:LTS linux-lts-xenial 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS linux 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS linux-aws 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS linux-aws-hwe 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS linux-azure 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS linux-gcp 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS linux-hwe 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS linux-hwe-edge 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS linux-kvm 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:16.04:LTS linux-oracle 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-aws 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-aws-5.0 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-aws-5.3 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-aws-5.4 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-azure 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-azure-4.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-azure-5.3 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-azure-5.4 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-azure-edge 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-gcp 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-gcp-4.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.3 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-gcp-5.4 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-gke-4.15 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-gke-5.4 0 No fix
Ubuntu:Pro:18.04:LTS linux-gkeop-5.4 0 No fix

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