CVE-2025-71268 btrfs: fix reservation leak in some error paths when inserting inline extent
A memory leak in the Linux kernel's btrfs filesystem can lead to resource exhaustion and denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-71268?
CVE-2025-71268 is a high-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 18 Mar 2026. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
btrfs: fix reservation leak in some error paths when inserting inline extent
If we fail to allocate a path or join a transaction, we return from __cow_file_range_inline() without freeing the reserved qgroup data, resulting in a leak. Fix this by ensuring we call btrfs_qgroup_free_data() in such cases.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-71268?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2025-71268?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2025-71268 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-71268 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2025-71268, DEBIAN-CVE-2025-71268, GHSA-62m8-jj4j-qm8p, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2025-71268, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2025-71268, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2025-71268 and 1 more.