# CVE-2024-42266: btrfs: make cow_file_range_inline() honor locked_page on error

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel panic in the Btrfs filesystem by exploiting a null pointer dereference during buffered write operations.

- **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:** 17 Aug 2024
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-42266, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-42266, GHSA-rwf6-8284-hxfr, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-42266

## What is CVE-2024-42266?

CVE-2024-42266 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 17 Aug 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: make cow_file_range_inline() honor locked_page on error

The btrfs buffered write path runs through __extent_writepage() which
has some tricky return value handling for writepage_delalloc().
Specifically, when that returns 1, we exit, but for other return values
we continue and end up calling btrfs_folio_end_all_writers(). If the
folio has been unlocked (note that we check the PageLocked bit at the
start of __extent_writepage()), this results in an assert panic like
this one from syzbot:

  BTRFS: error (device loop0 state EAL) in free_log_tree:3267: errno=-5 IO failure
  BTRFS warning (device loop0 state EAL): Skipping commit of aborted transaction.
  BTRFS: error (device loop0 state EAL) in cleanup_transaction:2018: errno=-5 IO failure
  assertion failed: folio_test_locked(folio), in fs/btrfs/subpage.c:871
  ------------[ cut here ]------------
  kernel BUG at fs/btrfs/subpage.c:871!
  Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN PTI
  CPU: 1 PID: 5090 Comm: syz-executor225 Not tainted
  6.10.0-syzkaller-05505-gb1bc554e009e #0
  Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS
  Google 06/27/2024
  RIP: 0010:btrfs_folio_end_all_writers+0x55b/0x610 fs/btrfs/subpage.c:871
  Code: e9 d3 fb ff ff e8 25 22 c2 fd 48 c7 c7 c0 3c 0e 8c 48 c7 c6 80 3d
  0e 8c 48 c7 c2 60 3c 0e 8c b9 67 03 00 00 e8 66 47 ad 07 90 <0f> 0b e8
  6e 45 b0 07 4c 89 ff be 08 00 00 00 e8 21 12 25 fe 4c 89
  RSP: 0018:ffffc900033d72e0 EFLAGS: 00010246
  RAX: 0000000000000045 RBX: 00fff0000000402c RCX: 663b7a08c50a0a00
  RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000080000000 RDI: 0000000000000000
  RBP: ffffc900033d73b0 R08: ffffffff8176b98c R09: 1ffff9200067adfc
  R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: fffff5200067adfd R12: 0000000000000001
  R13: dffffc0000000000 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: ffffea0001cbee80
  FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8880b9500000(0000)
  knlGS:0000000000000000
  CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
  CR2: 00007f5f076012f8 CR3: 000000000e134000 CR4: 00000000003506f0
  DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
  DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
  Call Trace:
  <TASK>
  __extent_writepage fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:1597 [inline]
  extent_write_cache_pages fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:2251 [inline]
  btrfs_writepages+0x14d7/0x2760 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:2373
  do_writepages+0x359/0x870 mm/page-writeback.c:2656
  filemap_fdatawrite_wbc+0x125/0x180 mm/filemap.c:397
  __filemap_fdatawrite_range mm/filemap.c:430 [inline]
  __filemap_fdatawrite mm/filemap.c:436 [inline]
  filemap_flush+0xdf/0x130 mm/filemap.c:463
  btrfs_release_file+0x117/0x130 fs/btrfs/file.c:1547
  __fput+0x24a/0x8a0 fs/file_table.c:422
  task_work_run+0x24f/0x310 kernel/task_work.c:222
  exit_task_work include/linux/task_work.h:40 [inline]
  do_exit+0xa2f/0x27f0 kernel/exit.c:877
  do_group_exit+0x207/0x2c0 kernel/exit.c:1026
  __do_sys_exit_group kernel/exit.c:1037 [inline]
  __se_sys_exit_group kernel/exit.c:1035 [inline]
  __x64_sys_exit_group+0x3f/0x40 kernel/exit.c:1035
  x64_sys_call+0x2634/0x2640
  arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_64.h:232
  do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 [inline]
  do_syscall_64+0xf3/0x230 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83
  entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
  RIP: 0033:0x7f5f075b70c9
  Code: Unable to access opcode bytes at
  0x7f5f075b709f.

I was hitting the same issue by doing hundreds of accelerated runs of
generic/475, which also hits IO errors by design.

I instrumented that reproducer with bpftrace and found that the
undesirable folio_unlock was coming from the following callstack:

  folio_unlock+5
  __process_pages_contig+475
  cow_file_range_inline.constprop.0+230
  cow_file_range+803
  btrfs_run_delalloc_range+566
  writepage_delalloc+332
  __extent_writepage # inlined in my stacktrace, but I added it here
  extent_write_cache_pages+622

Looking at the bisected-to pa
---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-42266?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-42266?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-42266 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-42266 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-2024-42266 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-42266 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 17 Aug 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-2024-42266 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-2024-42266/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-42266/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-42266
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-42266
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-42266

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-42266/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.