# CVE-2022-49327: bcache: avoid journal no-space deadlock by reserving 1 journal bucket

> A deadlock in the Linux kernel bcache subsystem can cause a denial of service during cache set registration under heavy write load.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 26 Feb 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49327, GHSA-hc99-rgj6-64qj, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49327

## What is CVE-2022-49327?

CVE-2022-49327 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 26 Feb 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

bcache: avoid journal no-space deadlock by reserving 1 journal bucket

The journal no-space deadlock was reported time to time. Such deadlock
can happen in the following situation.

When all journal buckets are fully filled by active jset with heavy
write I/O load, the cache set registration (after a reboot) will load
all active jsets and inserting them into the btree again (which is
called journal replay). If a journaled bkey is inserted into a btree
node and results btree node split, new journal request might be
triggered. For example, the btree grows one more level after the node
split, then the root node record in cache device super block will be
upgrade by bch_journal_meta() from bch_btree_set_root(). But there is no
space in journal buckets, the journal replay has to wait for new journal
bucket to be reclaimed after at least one journal bucket replayed. This
is one example that how the journal no-space deadlock happens.

The solution to avoid the deadlock is to reserve 1 journal bucket in
run time, and only permit the reserved journal bucket to be used during
cache set registration procedure for things like journal replay. Then
the journal space will never be fully filled, there is no chance for
journal no-space deadlock to happen anymore.

This patch adds a new member "bool do_reserve" in struct journal, it is
inititalized to 0 (false) when struct journal is allocated, and set to
1 (true) by bch_journal_space_reserve() when all initialization done in
run_cache_set(). In the run time when journal_reclaim() tries to
allocate a new journal bucket, free_journal_buckets() is called to check
whether there are enough free journal buckets to use. If there is only
1 free journal bucket and journal->do_reserve is 1 (true), the last
bucket is reserved and free_journal_buckets() will return 0 to indicate
no free journal bucket. Then journal_reclaim() will give up, and try
next time to see whetheer there is free journal bucket to allocate. By
this method, there is always 1 jouranl bucket reserved in run time.

During the cache set registration, journal->do_reserve is 0 (false), so
the reserved journal bucket can be used to avoid the no-space deadlock.

Weakness: CWE-667 (Improper Locking)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49327?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-49327?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-49327 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49327 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2022-49327 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-49327 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 26 Feb 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49327 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49327/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49327/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-49327
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49327
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-49327

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49327/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
