# CVE-2023-53865: btrfs: fix warning when putting transaction with qgroups enabled after abort

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel warning and potential denial of service in the Btrfs filesystem when qgroups are enabled and a transaction aborts.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **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:** 9 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 23 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53865, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53865, GHSA-2jgh-c6p5-562x, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53865

## What is CVE-2023-53865?

CVE-2023-53865 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Dec 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 warning when putting transaction with qgroups enabled after abort

If we have a transaction abort with qgroups enabled we get a warning
triggered when doing the final put on the transaction, like this:

  [552.6789] ------------[ cut here ]------------
  [552.6815] WARNING: CPU: 4 PID: 81745 at fs/btrfs/transaction.c:144 btrfs_put_transaction+0x123/0x130 [btrfs]
  [552.6817] Modules linked in: btrfs blake2b_generic xor (...)
  [552.6819] CPU: 4 PID: 81745 Comm: btrfs-transacti Tainted: G        W          6.4.0-rc6-btrfs-next-134+ #1
  [552.6819] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.2-0-gea1b7a073390-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
  [552.6819] RIP: 0010:btrfs_put_transaction+0x123/0x130 [btrfs]
  [552.6821] Code: bd a0 01 00 (...)
  [552.6821] RSP: 0018:ffffa168c0527e28 EFLAGS: 00010286
  [552.6821] RAX: ffff936042caed00 RBX: ffff93604a3eb448 RCX: 0000000000000000
  [552.6821] RDX: ffff93606421b028 RSI: ffffffff92ff0878 RDI: ffff93606421b010
  [552.6821] RBP: ffff93606421b000 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffa168c0d07c20
  [552.6821] R10: 0000000000000000 R11: ffff93608dc52950 R12: ffffa168c0527e70
  [552.6821] R13: ffff93606421b000 R14: ffff93604a3eb420 R15: ffff93606421b028
  [552.6821] FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff93675fb00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
  [552.6821] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
  [552.6821] CR2: 0000558ad262b000 CR3: 000000014feda005 CR4: 0000000000370ee0
  [552.6822] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
  [552.6822] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
  [552.6822] Call Trace:
  [552.6822]  <TASK>
  [552.6822]  ? __warn+0x80/0x130
  [552.6822]  ? btrfs_put_transaction+0x123/0x130 [btrfs]
  [552.6824]  ? report_bug+0x1f4/0x200
  [552.6824]  ? handle_bug+0x42/0x70
  [552.6824]  ? exc_invalid_op+0x14/0x70
  [552.6824]  ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x16/0x20
  [552.6824]  ? btrfs_put_transaction+0x123/0x130 [btrfs]
  [552.6826]  btrfs_cleanup_transaction+0xe7/0x5e0 [btrfs]
  [552.6828]  ? _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x23/0x40
  [552.6828]  ? try_to_wake_up+0x94/0x5e0
  [552.6828]  ? __pfx_process_timeout+0x10/0x10
  [552.6828]  transaction_kthread+0x103/0x1d0 [btrfs]
  [552.6830]  ? __pfx_transaction_kthread+0x10/0x10 [btrfs]
  [552.6832]  kthread+0xee/0x120
  [552.6832]  ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10
  [552.6832]  ret_from_fork+0x29/0x50
  [552.6832]  </TASK>
  [552.6832] ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

This corresponds to this line of code:

  void btrfs_put_transaction(struct btrfs_transaction *transaction)
  {
      (...)
          WARN_ON(!RB_EMPTY_ROOT(
                          &transaction->delayed_refs.dirty_extent_root));
      (...)
  }

The warning happens because btrfs_qgroup_destroy_extent_records(), called
in the transaction abort path, we free all entries from the rbtree
"dirty_extent_root" with rbtree_postorder_for_each_entry_safe(), but we
don't actually empty the rbtree - it's still pointing to nodes that were
freed.

So set the rbtree's root node to NULL to avoid this warning (assign
RB_ROOT).

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53865?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-53865?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53865 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53865 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-53865 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53865 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Dec 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-2023-53865 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2023-53865/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53865/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53865
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53865
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53865

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53865/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.