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CVE-2025-68359

btrfs: fix double free of qgroup record after failure to add delayed ref head

9.8 EPSS 0.5% AV:N

Published 2025-12-24 (10 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem fs/btrfs. Debian urgency: unimportant.

What to do, per Debian release

Debian's own status for CVE-2025-68359 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source

ReleaseStatus VersionWhat this means
Debian 12bookwormnot affected6.1.190-1Nothing to do. bookworm never shipped the vulnerable code.
Debian 13trixievulnerable6.12.113-1No fix published anywhere yet, neither in Debian nor upstream for the series trixie tracks. Watch the Debian tracker page for this CVE. Advisories for trixie have historically landed a median of 11 days after publication.
Debian 14forkyfixed6.17.13-1Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 6.17.13-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts.
Debian unstablesidfixed6.17.13-1Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 6.17.13-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts.

The vulnerability

What the bug is

In the previous code it was possible to incur into a double kfree() scenario when calling add_delayed_ref_head(). This could happen if the record was reported to already exist in the btrfs_qgroup_trace_extent_nolock() call, but then there was an error later on add_delayed_ref_head(). In this case, since add_delayed_ref_head() returned an error, the caller went to free the record. Since add_delayed_ref_head() couldn't set this kfree'd pointer to NULL, then kfree() would have acted on a non-NULL 'record' object which was pointing to memory already freed by the callee. The problem comes from the fact that the responsibility to kfree the object is on both the caller and the callee at the same time. Hence, the fix for this is to shift the ownership of the 'qrecord' object out of the add_delayed_ref_head(). That is, we will never attempt to kfree() the given object inside of this function, and will expect the caller to act on the 'qrecord' object on its own. The only exception where the 'qrecord' object cannot be kfree'd is if it was inserted into the tracing logic, for which we already have the 'qrecord_inserted_ret' boolean to account for this. Hence, the caller has to kfree the object only if add_delayed_ref_head() reports not to have inserted it on the tracing logic. As a side-effect of the above, we must guarantee that 'qrecord_inserted_ret' is properly initialized at the start of the function, not at the end, and then set when an actual insert happens. This way we avoid 'qrecord_inserted_ret' having an invalid value on an early exit. The documentation from the add_delayed_ref_head() has also been updated to reflect on the exact ownership of the 'qrecord' object.

Where it lives

The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.

fs/btrfs/delayed-ref.c

What this is
BTRFS FILE SYSTEMMAINTAINERS section matched on fs/btrfs/ · linux-btrfs@vger.kernel.org · Maintained
Kernel module
btrfs

Check it on the machine

grep -w CONFIG_BTRFS_FS /boot/config-$(uname -r)

Reads the booted kernel's own configuration, on the machine and nowhere else. =y is built in, =m is a module, and an is not set line means the code is not there.

lsmod | grep -w btrfs

Prints a line if that module is loaded right now, and nothing if it is not. One that is not loaded can still be loaded later by anything that needs it.

Show whether Debian builds this, per release

Debian builds this as a loadable module. Every release below compiles it as a module on every flavour, so whether the code is in the running kernel depends on whether that module is loaded.

  • bookworm, trixie, forky, sidm
m
a loadable module on every flavour - check lsmod, can be blacklisted
Build switch
CONFIG_BTRFS_FS

From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS kbuild Makefiles Debian linux-config packages

Signals

Published
2025-12-24 (10 months ago)source
CVSS
9.8 critical
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hsource recompute it
Attack vector
network (AV:N)source
EPSS
0.53%, higher than 43.6% of all CVEssource
CISA KEV
not listedthe KEV catalogue
Debian urgency
unimportantsource
Subsystem
fs/btrfs

Upstream fixes

The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source

IntroducedFixed inCommit
6.126.17.137617680769e3
6.126.18.2364685c4c2d9
6.126.19725e46298876

Why the CNA scored it this way

Quoted from the kernel CNA's own scoring file, word for word. A highlighted metric carries the most severe value CVSS v3.1 defines for it, which is what pushes the score up. source

AV:NAttack vector, network
NFSv4.2 DEALLOCATE and ksmbd FSCTL_SET_ZERO_DATA can remotely invoke hole punching on exported Btrfs files, reaching the vulnerable delayed-reference path.
AC:LAttack complexity, low
An attacker can repeatedly manipulate shared extents, issue concurrent deallocations, and drive delayed-reference processing and memory pressure; both sides of the required race are attacker-influenceable.
PR:NPrivileges required, none
An anonymous writable NFS export or writable ksmbd guest share permits the required operations without credentials or kernel capabilities.
UI:NUser interaction, none
Once qgroup accounting and the writable export are configured, exploitation requires no action by another user.
S:UScope, unchanged
The corruption compromises the same host-kernel security authority and does not cross a virtualization or other security-scope boundary.
C:HConfidentiality impact, high
The double free can corrupt the slab freelist and produce overlapping allocations, enabling kernel-memory disclosure and arbitrary reads.
I:HIntegrity impact, high
Freelist corruption and overlapping allocations can provide attacker-controlled kernel writes and control-flow hijacking.
A:HAvailability impact, high
Freelist hardening can immediately trigger a BUG, while unhardened allocators suffer freelist corruption that can crash or panic the kernel repeatedly.