# CVE-2022-49898: btrfs: fix tree mod log mishandling of reallocated nodes

> A bug in the Linux kernel's btrfs file system causes a kernel panic when handling reallocated nodes, leading to a denial of service.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 1 May 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-49898, GHSA-mw9j-m44f-pxpp, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-49898, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-49898

## What is CVE-2022-49898?

CVE-2022-49898 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 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:

btrfs: fix tree mod log mishandling of reallocated nodes

We have been seeing the following panic in production

  kernel BUG at fs/btrfs/tree-mod-log.c:677!
  invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP
  RIP: 0010:tree_mod_log_rewind+0x1b4/0x200
  RSP: 0000:ffffc9002c02f890 EFLAGS: 00010293
  RAX: 0000000000000003 RBX: ffff8882b448c700 RCX: 0000000000000000
  RDX: 0000000000008000 RSI: 00000000000000a7 RDI: ffff88877d831c00
  RBP: 0000000000000002 R08: 000000000000009f R09: 0000000000000000
  R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000100c40 R12: 0000000000000001
  R13: ffff8886c26d6a00 R14: ffff88829f5424f8 R15: ffff88877d831a00
  FS:  00007fee1d80c780(0000) GS:ffff8890400c0000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
  CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
  CR2: 00007fee1963a020 CR3: 0000000434f33002 CR4: 00000000007706e0
  DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
  DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
  PKRU: 55555554
  Call Trace:
   btrfs_get_old_root+0x12b/0x420
   btrfs_search_old_slot+0x64/0x2f0
   ? tree_mod_log_oldest_root+0x3d/0xf0
   resolve_indirect_ref+0xfd/0x660
   ? ulist_alloc+0x31/0x60
   ? kmem_cache_alloc_trace+0x114/0x2c0
   find_parent_nodes+0x97a/0x17e0
   ? ulist_alloc+0x30/0x60
   btrfs_find_all_roots_safe+0x97/0x150
   iterate_extent_inodes+0x154/0x370
   ? btrfs_search_path_in_tree+0x240/0x240
   iterate_inodes_from_logical+0x98/0xd0
   ? btrfs_search_path_in_tree+0x240/0x240
   btrfs_ioctl_logical_to_ino+0xd9/0x180
   btrfs_ioctl+0xe2/0x2ec0
   ? __mod_memcg_lruvec_state+0x3d/0x280
   ? do_sys_openat2+0x6d/0x140
   ? kretprobe_dispatcher+0x47/0x70
   ? kretprobe_rethook_handler+0x38/0x50
   ? rethook_trampoline_handler+0x82/0x140
   ? arch_rethook_trampoline_callback+0x3b/0x50
   ? kmem_cache_free+0xfb/0x270
   ? do_sys_openat2+0xd5/0x140
   __x64_sys_ioctl+0x71/0xb0
   do_syscall_64+0x2d/0x40

Which is this code in tree_mod_log_rewind()

	switch (tm->op) {
        case BTRFS_MOD_LOG_KEY_REMOVE_WHILE_FREEING:
		BUG_ON(tm->slot < n);

This occurs because we replay the nodes in order that they happened, and
when we do a REPLACE we will log a REMOVE_WHILE_FREEING for every slot,
starting at 0.  'n' here is the number of items in this block, which in
this case was 1, but we had 2 REMOVE_WHILE_FREEING operations.

The actual root cause of this was that we were replaying operations for
a block that shouldn't have been replayed.  Consider the following
sequence of events

1. We have an already modified root, and we do a btrfs_get_tree_mod_seq().
2. We begin removing items from this root, triggering KEY_REPLACE for
   it's child slots.
3. We remove one of the 2 children this root node points to, thus triggering
   the root node promotion of the remaining child, and freeing this node.
4. We modify a new root, and re-allocate the above node to the root node of
   this other root.

The tree mod log looks something like this

	logical 0	op KEY_REPLACE (slot 1)			seq 2
	logical 0	op KEY_REMOVE (slot 1)			seq 3
	logical 0	op KEY_REMOVE_WHILE_FREEING (slot 0)	seq 4
	logical 4096	op LOG_ROOT_REPLACE (old logical 0)	seq 5
	logical 8192	op KEY_REMOVE_WHILE_FREEING (slot 1)	seq 6
	logical 8192	op KEY_REMOVE_WHILE_FREEING (slot 0)	seq 7
	logical 0	op LOG_ROOT_REPLACE (old logical 8192)	seq 8

>From here the bug is triggered by the following steps

1.  Call btrfs_get_old_root() on the new_root.
2.  We call tree_mod_log_oldest_root(btrfs_root_node(new_root)), which is
    currently logical 0.
3.  tree_mod_log_oldest_root() calls tree_mod_log_search_oldest(), which
    gives us the KEY_REPLACE seq 2, and since that's not a
    LOG_ROOT_REPLACE we incorrectly believe that we don't have an old
    root, because we expect that the most recent change should be a
    LOG_ROOT_REPLACE.
4.  Back in tree_mod_log_oldest_root() we don't have a LOG_ROOT_REPLACE,
    so we don't set old_root, we simply use our e
---truncated---

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-49898?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-49898?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-49898 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-49898 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-2022-49898 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-49898 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 May 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-2022-49898 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-2022-49898/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49898/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-49898
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-49898
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-49898

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-49898/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.