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TI-2026-24077 Aliases CVE-2026-31519GHSA-p3jm-9f4h-xp4f

btrfs: set BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP during subvol create

Priority LOW 24CWE-476Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Local
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Impact type
Denial of service
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
None · None · High
Fix status
Partial Red Hat: 4 without a fix

Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-476.

Summary

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: set BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP during subvol create We have recently observed a number of subvolumes with broken dentries. ls-ing the parent dir looks like: drwxrwxrwt 1 root root 16 Jan 23 16:49 . drwxr-xr-x 1 root root 24 Jan 23 16:48 .. d????????? ? ? ? ? ? broken_subvol and similarly stat-ing the file fails. In this state, deleting the subvol fails with ENOENT, but attempting to create a new file or subvol over it errors out with EEXIST and even aborts the fs. Which leaves us a bit stuck. dmesg contains a single notable error message reading: "could not do orphan cleanup -2" 2 is ENOENT and the error comes from the failure handling path of btrfs_orphan_cleanup(), with the stack leading back up to btrfs_lookup(). btrfs_lookup btrfs_lookup_dentry btrfs_orphan_cleanup // prints that message and returns -ENOENT After some detailed inspection of the internal state, it became clear that: - there are no orphan items for the subvol - the subvol is otherwise healthy looking, it is not half-deleted or anything, there is no drop progress, etc. - the subvol was created a while ago and does the meaningful first btrfs_orphan_cleanup() call that sets BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP much later. - after btrfs_orphan_cleanup() fails, btrfs_lookup_dentry() returns -ENOENT, which results in a negative dentry for the subvolume via d_splice_alias(NULL, dentry), leading to the observed behavior. The bug can be mitigated by dropping the dentry cache, at which point we can successfully delete the subvolume if we want. i.e., btrfs_lookup() btrfs_lookup_dentry() if (!sb_rdonly(inode->vfs_inode)->vfs_inode) btrfs_orphan_cleanup(sub_root) test_and_set_bit(BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP) btrfs_search_slot() // finds orphan item for inode N ... prints "could not do orphan cleanup -2" if (inode == ERR_PTR(-ENOENT)) inode = NULL; return d_splice_alias(NULL, dentry) // NEGATIVE DENTRY for valid subvolume btrfs_orphan_cleanup() does test_and_set_bit(BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP) on the root when it runs, so it cannot run more than once on a given root, so something else must run concurrently. However, the obvious routes to deleting an orphan when nlinks goes to 0 should not be able to run without first doing a lookup into the subvolume, which should run btrfs_orphan_cleanup() and set the bit. The final important observation is that create_subvol() calls d_instantiate_new() but does not set BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP, so if the dentry cache gets dropped, the next lookup into the subvolume will make a real call into btrfs_orphan_cleanup() for the first time. This opens up the possibility of concurrently deleting the inode/orphan items but most typical evict() paths will be holding a reference on the parent dentry (child dentry holds parent->d_lockref.count via dget in d_alloc(), released in __dentry_kill()) and prevent the parent from being removed from the dentry cache. The one exception is delayed iputs. Ordered extent creation calls igrab() on the inode. If the file is unlinked and closed while those refs are held, iput() in __dentry_kill() decrements i_count but does not trigger eviction (i_count > 0). The child dentry is freed and the subvol dentry's d_lockref.count drops to 0, making it evictable while the inode is still alive. Since there are two races (the race between writeback and unlink and the race between lookup and delayed iputs), and there are too many moving parts, the following three diagrams show the complete picture. (Only the second and third are races) Phase 1: Create Subvol in dentry cache without BTRFS_ROOT_ORPHAN_CLEANUP set btrfs_mksubvol() lookup_one_len() __lookup_slow() d_alloc_parallel() __d_alloc() // d_lockref.count = 1 create_subvol(dentry) // doesn't touch the bit.. d_instantiate_new(dentry, inode) // dentry in cache with d_lockref.c ---truncated---

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00123 2nd percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial Linux (Linux): 2.6.33, 6.1.168, 6.6.131 +4Red Hat: 4 without a fix

SSVC decision points

CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3

Exploitation
None
Automatable
No
Technical impact
Partial

The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
LinuxLinux2.6.32.19 to before 2.6.332.6.33Patch availableCNA
LinuxLinux2.6.33 and later6.1.168, 6.6.131, 6.12.80, 6.18.21, 6.19.11, 7.0Patch availableCNA
  • Linux VendorLinux Affected 2.6.32.19 to before 2.6.33 Fixed in 2.6.33 Patch available CNA
  • Linux VendorLinux Affected 2.6.33 and later Fixed in 6.1.168, 6.6.131, 6.12.80, 6.18.21, 6.19.11, 7.0 Patch available CNA

CPE configurations NVD · 4

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*2.6.32.19 to before 2.6.33; 2.6.33 to before 6.1.168; 6.2 to before 6.6.131; 6.7 to before 6.12.80; 6.13 to before 6.18.21; 6.19 to before 6.19.11VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*7.0 rc1VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*7.0 rc2VulnerableLinux
cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:*7.0 rc3VulnerableLinux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 2.6.32.19 to before 2.6.33; 2.6.33 to before 6.1.168; 6.2 to before 6.6.131; 6.7 to before 6.12.80; 6.13 to before 6.18.21; 6.19 to before 6.19.11 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 7.0 rc1 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 7.0 rc2 Vulnerable ·Linux
  • cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:7.0:rc3:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 7.0 rc3 Vulnerable ·Linux

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 2.6.33
  • Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.1.168, 6.6.131, 6.12.80, 6.18.21, 6.19.11, 7.0

Vendor assessments

Red Hat

Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →

ProductStatusPlan or fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9AffectedNo fix yet: Fix deferred
Not affected: 1 product
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-31519
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-p3jm-9f4h-xp4f
  3. 2026-11-05 CISA SSVC decision points changed

References

  • TI-2025-26358 tls: fix handling of zero-length records on the rx_list KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
  • TI-2026-38352 netfilter: bridge: make ebt_snat ARP rewrite writable KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
  • TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
See all 15278 →

Sources