# CVE-2024-26792: btrfs: fix double free of anonymous device after snapshot creation failure

> A double free vulnerability in the Linux kernel's btrfs filesystem allows attackers to cause denial of service or potentially escalate privileges via snapshot creation errors.

- **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:** 4 Apr 2024
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-54536, BELL-CVE-2024-26792, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-26792, GHSA-7w6v-jhvx-qx5c, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2024-26792, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-26792

## What is CVE-2024-26792?

CVE-2024-26792 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Apr 2024. 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 double free of anonymous device after snapshot creation failure

When creating a snapshot we may do a double free of an anonymous device
in case there's an error committing the transaction. The second free may
result in freeing an anonymous device number that was allocated by some
other subsystem in the kernel or another btrfs filesystem.

The steps that lead to this:

1) At ioctl.c:create_snapshot() we allocate an anonymous device number
   and assign it to pending_snapshot->anon_dev;

2) Then we call btrfs_commit_transaction() and end up at
   transaction.c:create_pending_snapshot();

3) There we call btrfs_get_new_fs_root() and pass it the anonymous device
   number stored in pending_snapshot->anon_dev;

4) btrfs_get_new_fs_root() frees that anonymous device number because
   btrfs_lookup_fs_root() returned a root - someone else did a lookup
   of the new root already, which could some task doing backref walking;

5) After that some error happens in the transaction commit path, and at
   ioctl.c:create_snapshot() we jump to the 'fail' label, and after
   that we free again the same anonymous device number, which in the
   meanwhile may have been reallocated somewhere else, because
   pending_snapshot->anon_dev still has the same value as in step 1.

Recently syzbot ran into this and reported the following trace:

  ------------[ cut here ]------------
  ida_free called for id=51 which is not allocated.
  WARNING: CPU: 1 PID: 31038 at lib/idr.c:525 ida_free+0x370/0x420 lib/idr.c:525
  Modules linked in:
  CPU: 1 PID: 31038 Comm: syz-executor.2 Not tainted 6.8.0-rc4-syzkaller-00410-gc02197fc9076 #0
  Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 01/25/2024
  RIP: 0010:ida_free+0x370/0x420 lib/idr.c:525
  Code: 10 42 80 3c 28 (...)
  RSP: 0018:ffffc90015a67300 EFLAGS: 00010246
  RAX: be5130472f5dd000 RBX: 0000000000000033 RCX: 0000000000040000
  RDX: ffffc90009a7a000 RSI: 000000000003ffff RDI: 0000000000040000
  RBP: ffffc90015a673f0 R08: ffffffff81577992 R09: 1ffff92002b4cdb4
  R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: fffff52002b4cdb5 R12: 0000000000000246
  R13: dffffc0000000000 R14: ffffffff8e256b80 R15: 0000000000000246
  FS:  00007fca3f4b46c0(0000) GS:ffff8880b9500000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
  CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
  CR2: 00007f167a17b978 CR3: 000000001ed26000 CR4: 0000000000350ef0
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   btrfs_get_root_ref+0xa48/0xaf0 fs/btrfs/disk-io.c:1346
   create_pending_snapshot+0xff2/0x2bc0 fs/btrfs/transaction.c:1837
   create_pending_snapshots+0x195/0x1d0 fs/btrfs/transaction.c:1931
   btrfs_commit_transaction+0xf1c/0x3740 fs/btrfs/transaction.c:2404
   create_snapshot+0x507/0x880 fs/btrfs/ioctl.c:848
   btrfs_mksubvol+0x5d0/0x750 fs/btrfs/ioctl.c:998
   btrfs_mksnapshot+0xb5/0xf0 fs/btrfs/ioctl.c:1044
   __btrfs_ioctl_snap_create+0x387/0x4b0 fs/btrfs/ioctl.c:1306
   btrfs_ioctl_snap_create_v2+0x1ca/0x400 fs/btrfs/ioctl.c:1393
   btrfs_ioctl+0xa74/0xd40
   vfs_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:51 [inline]
   __do_sys_ioctl fs/ioctl.c:871 [inline]
   __se_sys_ioctl+0xfe/0x170 fs/ioctl.c:857
   do_syscall_64+0xfb/0x240
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x6f/0x77
  RIP: 0033:0x7fca3e67dda9
  Code: 28 00 00 00 (...)
  RSP: 002b:00007fca3f4b40c8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000010
  RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007fca3e7abf80 RCX: 00007fca3e67dda9
  RDX: 00000000200005c0 RSI: 0000000050009417 RDI: 0000000000000003
  RBP: 00007fca3e6ca47a R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
  R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000000
  R13: 000000000000000b R14: 00007fca3e7abf80 R15: 00007fff6bf95658
   </TASK>

Where we get an explicit message where we attempt to free an anonymous
device number that is not currently allocated. It happens in a different
code path from the example below, at btrfs_get_root_ref(), so this change
may not fix the case triggered by sy
---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-415 (Double Free)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-26792?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-26792?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-26792 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-26792 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-2024-26792 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-26792 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 4 Apr 2024. 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-2024-26792 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-2024-26792/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26792/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-26792
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-26792
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-26792

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-26792/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.