# CVE-2024-46734: btrfs: fix race between direct IO write and fsync when using same fd

> A race condition in the Linux kernel's btrfs filesystem allows local attackers to cause a system crash via invalid memory access or assertion failures.

- **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:** 18 Sep 2024
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2024-46734, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-46734, GHSA-pw8w-hq42-r2hw, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-46734

## What is CVE-2024-46734?

CVE-2024-46734 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Sep 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 race between direct IO write and fsync when using same fd

If we have 2 threads that are using the same file descriptor and one of
them is doing direct IO writes while the other is doing fsync, we have a
race where we can end up either:

1) Attempt a fsync without holding the inode's lock, triggering an
   assertion failures when assertions are enabled;

2) Do an invalid memory access from the fsync task because the file private
   points to memory allocated on stack by the direct IO task and it may be
   used by the fsync task after the stack was destroyed.

The race happens like this:

1) A user space program opens a file descriptor with O_DIRECT;

2) The program spawns 2 threads using libpthread for example;

3) One of the threads uses the file descriptor to do direct IO writes,
   while the other calls fsync using the same file descriptor.

4) Call task A the thread doing direct IO writes and task B the thread
   doing fsyncs;

5) Task A does a direct IO write, and at btrfs_direct_write() sets the
   file's private to an on stack allocated private with the member
   'fsync_skip_inode_lock' set to true;

6) Task B enters btrfs_sync_file() and sees that there's a private
   structure associated to the file which has 'fsync_skip_inode_lock' set
   to true, so it skips locking the inode's VFS lock;

7) Task A completes the direct IO write, and resets the file's private to
   NULL since it had no prior private and our private was stack allocated.
   Then it unlocks the inode's VFS lock;

8) Task B enters btrfs_get_ordered_extents_for_logging(), then the
   assertion that checks the inode's VFS lock is held fails, since task B
   never locked it and task A has already unlocked it.

The stack trace produced is the following:

   assertion failed: inode_is_locked(&inode->vfs_inode), in fs/btrfs/ordered-data.c:983
   ------------[ cut here ]------------
   kernel BUG at fs/btrfs/ordered-data.c:983!
   Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI
   CPU: 9 PID: 5072 Comm: worker Tainted: G     U     OE      6.10.5-1-default #1 openSUSE Tumbleweed 69f48d427608e1c09e60ea24c6c55e2ca1b049e8
   Hardware name: Acer Predator PH315-52/Covini_CFS, BIOS V1.12 07/28/2020
   RIP: 0010:btrfs_get_ordered_extents_for_logging.cold+0x1f/0x42 [btrfs]
   Code: 50 d6 86 c0 e8 (...)
   RSP: 0018:ffff9e4a03dcfc78 EFLAGS: 00010246
   RAX: 0000000000000054 RBX: ffff9078a9868e98 RCX: 0000000000000000
   RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffff907dce4a7800 RDI: ffff907dce4a7800
   RBP: ffff907805518800 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffff9e4a03dcfb38
   R10: ffff9e4a03dcfb30 R11: 0000000000000003 R12: ffff907684ae7800
   R13: 0000000000000001 R14: ffff90774646b600 R15: 0000000000000000
   FS:  00007f04b96006c0(0000) GS:ffff907dce480000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
   CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
   CR2: 00007f32acbfc000 CR3: 00000001fd4fa005 CR4: 00000000003726f0
   Call Trace:
    <TASK>
    ? __die_body.cold+0x14/0x24
    ? die+0x2e/0x50
    ? do_trap+0xca/0x110
    ? do_error_trap+0x6a/0x90
    ? btrfs_get_ordered_extents_for_logging.cold+0x1f/0x42 [btrfs bb26272d49b4cdc847cf3f7faadd459b62caee9a]
    ? exc_invalid_op+0x50/0x70
    ? btrfs_get_ordered_extents_for_logging.cold+0x1f/0x42 [btrfs bb26272d49b4cdc847cf3f7faadd459b62caee9a]
    ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x1a/0x20
    ? btrfs_get_ordered_extents_for_logging.cold+0x1f/0x42 [btrfs bb26272d49b4cdc847cf3f7faadd459b62caee9a]
    ? btrfs_get_ordered_extents_for_logging.cold+0x1f/0x42 [btrfs bb26272d49b4cdc847cf3f7faadd459b62caee9a]
    btrfs_sync_file+0x21a/0x4d0 [btrfs bb26272d49b4cdc847cf3f7faadd459b62caee9a]
    ? __seccomp_filter+0x31d/0x4f0
    __x64_sys_fdatasync+0x4f/0x90
    do_syscall_64+0x82/0x160
    ? do_futex+0xcb/0x190
    ? __x64_sys_futex+0x10e/0x1d0
    ? switch_fpu_return+0x4f/0xd0
    ? syscall_exit_to_user_mode+0x72/0x220
    ? do_syscall_64+0x8e/0x160
    ? syscall_exit_to_user_mod
---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-362 (Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-46734?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-46734?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-46734 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-46734 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-2024-46734 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-46734 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Sep 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-2024-46734 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-2024-46734/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46734/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-46734
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-46734
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-46734

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-46734/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.