# CVE-2024-50229: nilfs2: fix potential deadlock with newly created symlinks

> A deadlock in the nilfs2 filesystem can cause a system hang when creating symlinks, requiring a kernel patch to resolve.

- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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:** 9 Nov 2024
- **Updated:** 23 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-53067, AZL-53124, BELL-CVE-2024-50229, DEBIAN-CVE-2024-50229, GHSA-7h5p-3h8w-5629, UBUNTU-CVE-2024-50229

## What is CVE-2024-50229?

CVE-2024-50229 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 9 Nov 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:

nilfs2: fix potential deadlock with newly created symlinks

Syzbot reported that page_symlink(), called by nilfs_symlink(), triggers
memory reclamation involving the filesystem layer, which can result in
circular lock dependencies among the reader/writer semaphore
nilfs->ns_segctor_sem, s_writers percpu_rwsem (intwrite) and the
fs_reclaim pseudo lock.

This is because after commit 21fc61c73c39 ("don't put symlink bodies in
pagecache into highmem"), the gfp flags of the page cache for symbolic
links are overwritten to GFP_KERNEL via inode_nohighmem().

This is not a problem for symlinks read from the backing device, because
the __GFP_FS flag is dropped after inode_nohighmem() is called.  However,
when a new symlink is created with nilfs_symlink(), the gfp flags remain
overwritten to GFP_KERNEL.  Then, memory allocation called from
page_symlink() etc.  triggers memory reclamation including the FS layer,
which may call nilfs_evict_inode() or nilfs_dirty_inode().  And these can
cause a deadlock if they are called while nilfs->ns_segctor_sem is held:

Fix this issue by dropping the __GFP_FS flag from the page cache GFP flags
of newly created symlinks in the same way that nilfs_new_inode() and
__nilfs_read_inode() do, as a workaround until we adopt nofs allocation
scope consistently or improve the locking constraints.

Weakness: CWE-667 (Improper Locking)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-50229?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2024-50229?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2024-50229 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-50229 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-2024-50229 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2024-50229 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 9 Nov 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-2024-50229 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-2024-50229/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-50229/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-50229
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-50229
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-50229

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2024-50229/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.