btrfs: balance: fix potential bg lookup failure in btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk()
Key facts
- Attack vector
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- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
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- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 2 without a fix
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: balance: fix potential bg lookup failure in btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk() [BUG] Running btrfs balance can trigger a null-ptr-deref before relocating a data chunk when metadata corruption leaves a chunk in the chunk tree without a corresponding block group in the in-memory cache: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000088-0x000000000000008f] RIP: 0010:btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk+0x40/0x1c0 fs/btrfs/volumes.c:3601 Call Trace: __btrfs_balance fs/btrfs/volumes.c:4217 [inline] btrfs_balance+0x2516/0x42b0 fs/btrfs/volumes.c:4604 btrfs_ioctl_balance fs/btrfs/ioctl.c:3577 [inline] btrfs_ioctl+0x25cf/0x5b90 fs/btrfs/ioctl.c:5313 ... [CAUSE] __btrfs_balance() iterates the on-disk chunk tree and passes the chunk logical bytenr to btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk() before relocating a data chunk. That helper then queries the in-memory block group cache: cache = btrfs_lookup_block_group(fs_info, chunk_offset); chunk_type = cache->flags; /* cache may be NULL */ A corrupt image can contain a chunk item whose matching block group item is missing, so no block group is ever inserted into the cache. In that case btrfs_lookup_block_group() returns NULL. The code only guards this with ASSERT(cache), which becomes a no-op when CONFIG_BTRFS_ASSERT is disabled. The subsequent dereference of cache->flags therefore crashes the kernel. [FIX] Add a NULL check after btrfs_lookup_block_group() in btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk() and print and error message for clarity.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 5.10.271, 5.15.222, 6.1.189, 6.6.158, 6.12.111, 6.18.53, 7.2
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
Not affected: 5 products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-97416
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-2886-j9mj-2v9x
- 2026-10-03 Fix available: Linux/Linux@322f891b4d4fe64acb3351a0ffa62a7fa5ba7256, Linux/[email protected], Linux/[email protected] +5 · CNA
- 2026-10-03 4 new references · CNA
- 2026-11-07 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
Other 7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9f37a6d6ae9e998232e2ba091ab4999cdf967e1b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/e479236a8f4d85c4fb6b3f7c2556c21f583e2bf2
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/322f891b4d4fe64acb3351a0ffa62a7fa5ba7256
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/81a664ed8b1a44c76b204c4bd0d751317a02c5cd
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9740dd0c17a4be8cc47a06c5ca5293471a7e286e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/59f75e0c8724d4adebc08c7dd3ff2358b80c21f7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/18d32b0013efba19f7ad3e5b08d7aee813d604a6
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Sources
- CVE-2026-97416 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-97416 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-2886-j9mj-2v9x · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-97416 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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