# CVE-2023-54032: btrfs: fix race when deleting quota root from the dirty cow roots list

> A race condition in the Linux kernel btrfs filesystem allows local attackers to cause a system crash by disabling quotas concurrently with other operations.

- **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:** 24 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-54032, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54032, GHSA-8gh4-gqrp-mv7g, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54032

## What is CVE-2023-54032?

CVE-2023-54032 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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 race when deleting quota root from the dirty cow roots list

When disabling quotas we are deleting the quota root from the list
fs_info->dirty_cowonly_roots without taking the lock that protects it,
which is struct btrfs_fs_info::trans_lock. This unsynchronized list
manipulation may cause chaos if there's another concurrent manipulation
of this list, such as when adding a root to it with
ctree.c:add_root_to_dirty_list().

This can result in all sorts of weird failures caused by a race, such as
the following crash:

  [337571.278245] general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdead000000000108: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI
  [337571.278933] CPU: 1 PID: 115447 Comm: btrfs Tainted: G        W          6.4.0-rc6-btrfs-next-134+ #1
  [337571.279153] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.14.0-0-g155821a1990b-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
  [337571.279572] RIP: 0010:commit_cowonly_roots+0x11f/0x250 [btrfs]
  [337571.279928] Code: 85 38 06 00 (...)
  [337571.280363] RSP: 0018:ffff9f63446efba0 EFLAGS: 00010206
  [337571.280582] RAX: ffff942d98ec2638 RBX: ffff9430b82b4c30 RCX: 0000000449e1c000
  [337571.280798] RDX: dead000000000100 RSI: ffff9430021e4900 RDI: 0000000000036070
  [337571.281015] RBP: ffff942d98ec2000 R08: ffff942d98ec2000 R09: 000000000000015b
  [337571.281254] R10: 0000000000000009 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff942fe8fbf600
  [337571.281476] R13: ffff942dabe23040 R14: ffff942dabe20800 R15: ffff942d92cf3b48
  [337571.281723] FS:  00007f478adb7340(0000) GS:ffff94349fa40000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
  [337571.281950] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
  [337571.282184] CR2: 00007f478ab9a3d5 CR3: 000000001e02c001 CR4: 0000000000370ee0
  [337571.282416] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
  [337571.282647] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
  [337571.282874] Call Trace:
  [337571.283101]  <TASK>
  [337571.283327]  ? __die_body+0x1b/0x60
  [337571.283570]  ? die_addr+0x39/0x60
  [337571.283796]  ? exc_general_protection+0x22e/0x430
  [337571.284022]  ? asm_exc_general_protection+0x22/0x30
  [337571.284251]  ? commit_cowonly_roots+0x11f/0x250 [btrfs]
  [337571.284531]  btrfs_commit_transaction+0x42e/0xf90 [btrfs]
  [337571.284803]  ? _raw_spin_unlock+0x15/0x30
  [337571.285031]  ? release_extent_buffer+0x103/0x130 [btrfs]
  [337571.285305]  reset_balance_state+0x152/0x1b0 [btrfs]
  [337571.285578]  btrfs_balance+0xa50/0x11e0 [btrfs]
  [337571.285864]  ? __kmem_cache_alloc_node+0x14a/0x410
  [337571.286086]  btrfs_ioctl+0x249a/0x3320 [btrfs]
  [337571.286358]  ? mod_objcg_state+0xd2/0x360
  [337571.286577]  ? refill_obj_stock+0xb0/0x160
  [337571.286798]  ? seq_release+0x25/0x30
  [337571.287016]  ? __rseq_handle_notify_resume+0x3ba/0x4b0
  [337571.287235]  ? percpu_counter_add_batch+0x2e/0xa0
  [337571.287455]  ? __x64_sys_ioctl+0x88/0xc0
  [337571.287675]  __x64_sys_ioctl+0x88/0xc0
  [337571.287901]  do_syscall_64+0x38/0x90
  [337571.288126]  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc
  [337571.288352] RIP: 0033:0x7f478aaffe9b

So fix this by locking struct btrfs_fs_info::trans_lock before deleting
the quota root from that list.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54032?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-54032?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-54032 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54032 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-54032 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-54032 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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-2023-54032 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-2023-54032/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54032/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-54032
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-54032
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-54032

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54032/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.