# CVE-2025-40100: btrfs: do not assert we found block group item when creating free space tree

> A kernel assertion failure in Btrfs free space tree creation causes a system crash, requiring local access to trigger.

- **Severity:** Not scored
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Not needed
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 30 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-69415, BELL-CVE-2025-40100, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-40100, GHSA-g2r9-36vv-r5vp, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-40100, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-40100, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-40100, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-40100

## What is CVE-2025-40100?

CVE-2025-40100 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 Oct 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: do not assert we found block group item when creating free space tree

Currently, when building a free space tree at populate_free_space_tree(),
if we are not using the block group tree feature, we always expect to find
block group items (either extent items or a block group item with key type
BTRFS_BLOCK_GROUP_ITEM_KEY) when we search the extent tree with
btrfs_search_slot_for_read(), so we assert that we found an item. However
this expectation is wrong since we can have a new block group created in
the current transaction which is still empty and for which we still have
not added the block group's item to the extent tree, in which case we do
not have any items in the extent tree associated to the block group.

The insertion of a new block group's block group item in the extent tree
happens at btrfs_create_pending_block_groups() when it calls the helper
insert_block_group_item(). This typically is done when a transaction
handle is released, committed or when running delayed refs (either as
part of a transaction commit or when serving tickets for space reservation
if we are low on free space).

So remove the assertion at populate_free_space_tree() even when the block
group tree feature is not enabled and update the comment to mention this
case.

Syzbot reported this with the following stack trace:

  BTRFS info (device loop3 state M): rebuilding free space tree
  assertion failed: ret == 0 :: 0, in fs/btrfs/free-space-tree.c:1115
  ------------[ cut here ]------------
  kernel BUG at fs/btrfs/free-space-tree.c:1115!
  Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP KASAN PTI
  CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 6352 Comm: syz.3.25 Not tainted syzkaller #0 PREEMPT(full)
  Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 08/18/2025
  RIP: 0010:populate_free_space_tree+0x700/0x710 fs/btrfs/free-space-tree.c:1115
  Code: ff ff e8 d3 (...)
  RSP: 0018:ffffc9000430f780 EFLAGS: 00010246
  RAX: 0000000000000043 RBX: ffff88805b709630 RCX: fea61d0e2e79d000
  RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000080000000 RDI: 0000000000000000
  RBP: ffffc9000430f8b0 R08: ffffc9000430f4a7 R09: 1ffff92000861e94
  R10: dffffc0000000000 R11: fffff52000861e95 R12: 0000000000000001
  R13: 1ffff92000861f00 R14: dffffc0000000000 R15: 0000000000000000
  FS:  00007f424d9fe6c0(0000) GS:ffff888125afc000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
  CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
  CR2: 00007fd78ad212c0 CR3: 0000000076d68000 CR4: 00000000003526f0
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   btrfs_rebuild_free_space_tree+0x1ba/0x6d0 fs/btrfs/free-space-tree.c:1364
   btrfs_start_pre_rw_mount+0x128f/0x1bf0 fs/btrfs/disk-io.c:3062
   btrfs_remount_rw fs/btrfs/super.c:1334 [inline]
   btrfs_reconfigure+0xaed/0x2160 fs/btrfs/super.c:1559
   reconfigure_super+0x227/0x890 fs/super.c:1076
   do_remount fs/namespace.c:3279 [inline]
   path_mount+0xd1a/0xfe0 fs/namespace.c:4027
   do_mount fs/namespace.c:4048 [inline]
   __do_sys_mount fs/namespace.c:4236 [inline]
   __se_sys_mount+0x313/0x410 fs/namespace.c:4213
   do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
   do_syscall_64+0xfa/0xfa0 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
   RIP: 0033:0x7f424e39066a
  Code: d8 64 89 02 (...)
  RSP: 002b:00007f424d9fde68 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 00000000000000a5
  RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f424d9fdef0 RCX: 00007f424e39066a
  RDX: 0000200000000180 RSI: 0000200000000380 RDI: 0000000000000000
  RBP: 0000200000000180 R08: 00007f424d9fdef0 R09: 0000000000000020
  R10: 0000000000000020 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000200000000380
  R13: 00007f424d9fdeb0 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 00002000000002c0
   </TASK>
  Modules linked in:
  ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-40100?


## How do I fix CVE-2025-40100?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2025-40100 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-40100 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2025-40100 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2025-40100 is a denial of service vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 Oct 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-2025-40100 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2025-40100/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-40100/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-40100
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-40100
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-40100

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2025-40100/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.