CVE-2026-74321 btrfs: fix invalid pointer dereference in __btrfs_run_delayed_refs()

What is CVE-2026-74321?

CVE-2026-74321 is a high-severity vulnerability in Linux, published on 15 Aug 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 invalid pointer dereference in __btrfs_run_delayed_refs()

In the beginning of the loop, we try to obtain a locked delayed ref head, if 'locked_ref' is currently NULL, by calling btrfs_select_ref_head(), which can return an error pointer. If the error pointer is -EAGAIN we do a continue and go back to the beginning of the loop, which will not try again to call btrfs_select_ref_head() since 'locked_ref' is no longer NULL but it's ERR_PTR(-EAGAIN), and then we do:

spin_lock(&locked_ref->lock);

against a ERR_PTR(-EAGAIN) value, generating an invalid pointer dereference.

Fix this by ensuring that 'locked_ref' is set to NULL when btrfs_select_ref_head() returns ERR_PTR(-EAGAIN) and incrementing 'count' as well, to prevent infinite looping. We do this by doing a goto to the bottom of the loop that already sets 'locked_ref' to NULL and does a cond_resched(), with an increment to 'count' right before the goto. These measures were in place before the refactoring in commit 0110a4c43451 ("btrfs: refactor __btrfs_run_delayed_refs loop") but were unintentionally lost afterwards.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-74321?

How do I fix CVE-2026-74321?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2026-74321 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74321 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-74321, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74321, GHSA-frrx-chj7-rchf, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74321.