# CVE-2025-21753: btrfs: fix use-after-free when attempting to join an aborted transaction

> A use-after-free in the Linux kernel's btrfs filesystem allows local attackers to potentially execute code or escalate privileges.

- **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:** 27 Feb 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-59010, BELL-CVE-2025-21753, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-21753, GHSA-595v-ghj9-chj5, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-21753, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-21753

## What is CVE-2025-21753?

CVE-2025-21753 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Feb 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 use-after-free when attempting to join an aborted transaction

When we are trying to join the current transaction and if it's aborted,
we read its 'aborted' field after unlocking fs_info->trans_lock and
without holding any extra reference count on it. This means that a
concurrent task that is aborting the transaction may free the transaction
before we read its 'aborted' field, leading to a use-after-free.

Fix this by reading the 'aborted' field while holding fs_info->trans_lock
since any freeing task must first acquire that lock and set
fs_info->running_transaction to NULL before freeing the transaction.

This was reported by syzbot and Dmitry with the following stack traces
from KASAN:

   ==================================================================
   BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in join_transaction+0xd9b/0xda0 fs/btrfs/transaction.c:278
   Read of size 4 at addr ffff888011839024 by task kworker/u4:9/1128

   CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 1128 Comm: kworker/u4:9 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc7-syzkaller-00019-gc45323b7560e #0
   Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2~bpo12+1 04/01/2014
   Workqueue: events_unbound btrfs_async_reclaim_data_space
   Call Trace:
    <TASK>
    __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline]
    dump_stack_lvl+0x241/0x360 lib/dump_stack.c:120
    print_address_description mm/kasan/report.c:378 [inline]
    print_report+0x169/0x550 mm/kasan/report.c:489
    kasan_report+0x143/0x180 mm/kasan/report.c:602
    join_transaction+0xd9b/0xda0 fs/btrfs/transaction.c:278
    start_transaction+0xaf8/0x1670 fs/btrfs/transaction.c:697
    flush_space+0x448/0xcf0 fs/btrfs/space-info.c:803
    btrfs_async_reclaim_data_space+0x159/0x510 fs/btrfs/space-info.c:1321
    process_one_work kernel/workqueue.c:3236 [inline]
    process_scheduled_works+0xa66/0x1840 kernel/workqueue.c:3317
    worker_thread+0x870/0xd30 kernel/workqueue.c:3398
    kthread+0x2f0/0x390 kernel/kthread.c:389
    ret_from_fork+0x4b/0x80 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:147
    ret_from_fork_asm+0x1a/0x30 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:244
    </TASK>

   Allocated by task 5315:
    kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline]
    kasan_save_track+0x3f/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:68
    poison_kmalloc_redzone mm/kasan/common.c:377 [inline]
    __kasan_kmalloc+0x98/0xb0 mm/kasan/common.c:394
    kasan_kmalloc include/linux/kasan.h:260 [inline]
    __kmalloc_cache_noprof+0x243/0x390 mm/slub.c:4329
    kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:901 [inline]
    join_transaction+0x144/0xda0 fs/btrfs/transaction.c:308
    start_transaction+0xaf8/0x1670 fs/btrfs/transaction.c:697
    btrfs_create_common+0x1b2/0x2e0 fs/btrfs/inode.c:6572
    lookup_open fs/namei.c:3649 [inline]
    open_last_lookups fs/namei.c:3748 [inline]
    path_openat+0x1c03/0x3590 fs/namei.c:3984
    do_filp_open+0x27f/0x4e0 fs/namei.c:4014
    do_sys_openat2+0x13e/0x1d0 fs/open.c:1402
    do_sys_open fs/open.c:1417 [inline]
    __do_sys_creat fs/open.c:1495 [inline]
    __se_sys_creat fs/open.c:1489 [inline]
    __x64_sys_creat+0x123/0x170 fs/open.c:1489
    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

   Freed by task 5336:
    kasan_save_stack mm/kasan/common.c:47 [inline]
    kasan_save_track+0x3f/0x80 mm/kasan/common.c:68
    kasan_save_free_info+0x40/0x50 mm/kasan/generic.c:582
    poison_slab_object mm/kasan/common.c:247 [inline]
    __kasan_slab_free+0x59/0x70 mm/kasan/common.c:264
    kasan_slab_free include/linux/kasan.h:233 [inline]
    slab_free_hook mm/slub.c:2353 [inline]
    slab_free mm/slub.c:4613 [inline]
    kfree+0x196/0x430 mm/slub.c:4761
    cleanup_transaction fs/btrfs/transaction.c:2063 [inline]
    btrfs_commit_transaction+0x2c97/0x3720 fs/btrfs/transaction.c:2598
    insert_balance_item+0x1284/0x20b0 fs/btrfs/volumes.c:3757
    btrfs_balance+0x992/
---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-416 (Use After Free)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-21753?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2025-21753?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-21753 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-21753 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-2025-21753 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-21753 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 27 Feb 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-2025-21753 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-2025-21753/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21753/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-21753
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-21753
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-21753

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-21753/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.