CVE-2022-50089 btrfs: ensure pages are unlocked on cow_file_range() failure

What is CVE-2022-50089?

CVE-2022-50089 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Jun 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: ensure pages are unlocked on cow_file_range() failure

There is a hung_task report on zoned btrfs like below.

https://github.com/naota/linux/issues/59

[726.328648] INFO: task rocksdb:high0:11085 blocked for more than 241 seconds. [726.329839] Not tainted 5.16.0-rc1+ #1 [726.330484] "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. [726.331603] task:rocksdb:high0 state:D stack: 0 pid:11085 ppid: 11082 flags:0x00000000 [726.331608] Call Trace: [726.331611] <TASK> [726.331614] __schedule+0x2e5/0x9d0 [726.331622] schedule+0x58/0xd0 [726.331626] io_schedule+0x3f/0x70 [726.331629] __folio_lock+0x125/0x200 [726.331634] ? find_get_entries+0x1bc/0x240 [726.331638] ? filemap_invalidate_unlock_two+0x40/0x40 [726.331642] truncate_inode_pages_range+0x5b2/0x770 [726.331649] truncate_inode_pages_final+0x44/0x50 [726.331653] btrfs_evict_inode+0x67/0x480 [726.331658] evict+0xd0/0x180 [726.331661] iput+0x13f/0x200 [726.331664] do_unlinkat+0x1c0/0x2b0 [726.331668] __x64_sys_unlink+0x23/0x30 [726.331670] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0xc0 [726.331674] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x44/0xae [726.331677] RIP: 0033:0x7fb9490a171b [726.331681] RSP: 002b:00007fb943ffac68 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000057 [726.331684] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 00007fb9490a171b [726.331686] RDX: 00007fb943ffb040 RSI: 000055a6bbe6ec20 RDI: 00007fb94400d300 [726.331687] RBP: 00007fb943ffad00 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 [726.331688] R10: 0000000000000031 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00007fb943ffb000 [726.331690] R13: 00007fb943ffb040 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 00007fb943ffd260 [726.331693] </TASK>

While we debug the issue, we found running fstests generic/551 on 5GB non-zoned null_blk device in the emulated zoned mode also had a similar hung issue.

Also, we can reproduce the same symptom with an error injected cow_file_range() setup.

The hang occurs when cow_file_range() fails in the middle of allocation. cow_file_range() called from do_allocation_zoned() can split the give region ([start, end]) for allocation depending on current block group usages. When btrfs can allocate bytes for one part of the split regions but fails for the other region (e.g. because of -ENOSPC), we return the error leaving the pages in the succeeded regions locked. Technically, this occurs only when @unlock == 0. Otherwise, we unlock the pages in an allocated region after creating an ordered extent.

Considering the callers of cow_file_range(unlock=0) won't write out the pages, we can unlock the pages on error exit from cow_file_range(). So, we can ensure all the pages except @locked_page are unlocked on error case.

In summary, cow_file_range now behaves like this:

- page_started == 1 (return value) - All the pages are unlocked. IO is started. - unlock == 1 - All the pages except @locked_page are unlocked in any case - unlock == 0 - On success, all the pages are locked for writing out them - On failure, all the pages except @locked_page are unlocked

Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50089?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2022-50089?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2022-50089 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50089 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50089, GHSA-785m-wwrq-6238, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50089.