# CVE-2022-50293: btrfs: do not BUG_ON() on ENOMEM when dropping extent items for a range

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel crash by exhausting memory during Btrfs extent operations, causing a denial of service.

- **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:** 15 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50293, GHSA-45cv-7v28-m46p, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2022-50293, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50293

## What is CVE-2022-50293?

CVE-2022-50293 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 Sep 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: do not BUG_ON() on ENOMEM when dropping extent items for a range

If we get -ENOMEM while dropping file extent items in a given range, at
btrfs_drop_extents(), due to failure to allocate memory when attempting to
increment the reference count for an extent or drop the reference count,
we handle it with a BUG_ON(). This is excessive, instead we can simply
abort the transaction and return the error to the caller. In fact most
callers of btrfs_drop_extents(), directly or indirectly, already abort
the transaction if btrfs_drop_extents() returns any error.

Also, we already have error paths at btrfs_drop_extents() that may return
-ENOMEM and in those cases we abort the transaction, like for example
anything that changes the b+tree may return -ENOMEM due to a failure to
allocate a new extent buffer when COWing an existing extent buffer, such
as a call to btrfs_duplicate_item() for example.

So replace the BUG_ON() calls with proper logic to abort the transaction
and return the error.

Weakness: CWE-617 (Reachable Assertion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50293?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2022-50293?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2022-50293 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50293 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-2022-50293 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2022-50293 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 Sep 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-2022-50293 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-2022-50293/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50293/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2022-50293
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2022-50293
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2022-50293

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-50293/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.