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🛡️ CVE-2026-23214 — kernel

🟡 CVSS 5.5 — Medium ✅ No Known Exploit NVD
5.5
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

btrfs: reject new transactions if the fs is fully read-only

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

btrfs: reject new transactions if the fs is fully read-only

[BUG]

There is a bug report where a heavily fuzzed fs is mounted with all

rescue mount options, which leads to the following warnings during

unmount:

BTRFS: Transaction aborted (error -22)

Modules linked in:

CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 9758 Comm: repro.out Not tainted

6.19.0-rc5-00002-gb71e635feefc #7 PREEMPT(full)

Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS 1.15.0-1 04/01/2014

RIP: 0010:find_free_extent_update_loop fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c:4208 [inline]

RIP: 0010:find_free_extent+0x52f0/0x5d20 fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c:4611

Call Trace:

<TASK>

btrfs_reserve_extent+0x2cd/0x790 fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c:4705

btrfs_alloc_tree_block+0x1e1/0x10e0 fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c:5157

btrfs_force_cow_block+0x578/0x2410 fs/btrfs/ctree.c:517

btrfs_cow_block+0x3c4/0xa80 fs/btrfs/ctree.c:708

btrfs_search_slot+0xcad/0x2b50 fs/btrfs/ctree.c:2130

btrfs_truncate_inode_items+0x45d/0x2350 fs/btrfs/inode-item.c:499

btrfs_evict_inode+0x923/0xe70 fs/btrfs/inode.c:5628

evict+0x5f4/0xae0 fs/inode.c:837

__dentry_kill+0x209/0x660 fs/dcache.c:670

finish_dput+0xc9/0x480 fs/dcache.c:879

shrink_dcache_for_umount+0xa0/0x170 fs/dcache.c:1661

generic_shutdown_super+0x67/0x2c0 fs/super.c:621

kill_anon_super+0x3b/0x70 fs/super.c:1289

btrfs_kill_super+0x41/0x50 fs/btrfs/super.c:2127

deactivate_locked_super+0xbc/0x130 fs/super.c:474

cleanup_mnt+0x425/0x4c0 fs/namespace.c:1318

task_work_run+0x1d4/0x260 kernel/task_work.c:233

exit_task_work include/linux/task_work.h:40 [inline]

do_exit+0x694/0x22f0 kernel/exit.c:971

do_group_exit+0x21c/0x2d0 kernel/exit.c:1112

__do_sys_exit_group kernel/exit.c:1123 [inline]

__se_sys_exit_group kernel/exit.c:1121 [inline]

__x64_sys_exit_group+0x3f/0x40 kernel/exit.c:1121

x64_sys_call+0x2210/0x2210 arch/x86/include/generated/asm/syscalls_64.h:232

do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]

do_syscall_64+0xe8/0xf80 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94

entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f

RIP: 0033:0x44f639

Code: Unable to access opcode bytes at 0x44f60f.

RSP: 002b:00007ffc15c4e088 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 00000000000000e7

RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00000000004c32f0 RCX: 000000000044f639

RDX: 000000000000003c RSI: 00000000000000e7 RDI: 0000000000000001

RBP: 0000000000000001 R08: ffffffffffffffc0 R09: 0000000000000000

R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 00000000004c32f0

R13: 0000000000000001 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 0000000000000001

</TASK>

Since rescue mount options will mark the full fs read-only, there should

be no new transaction triggered.

But during unmount we will evict all inodes, which can trigger a new

transaction, and triggers warnings on a heavily corrupted fs.

[CAUSE]

Btrfs allows new transaction even on a read-only fs, this is to allow

log replay happen even on read-only mounts, just like what ext4/xfs do.

However with rescue mount options, the fs is fully read-only and cannot

be remounted read-write, thus in that case we should also reject any new

transactions.

[FIX]

If we find the fs has rescue mount options, we should treat the fs as

error, so that no new transaction can be started.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity none, availability high.

Affected software

CVE-2026-23214 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • kernel (from 6.13.0 up to 6.18.10)
  • linux-kernel

Timeline and source

Published on 18 February 2026 and last revised on 12 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from NVD.

References

git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
github.com (Advisory)
nvd.nist.gov (Advisory)
git.kernel.org (Package)

CVE-2026-23214 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity Medium
CVSS Score 5.5
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2026-02-18
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-08-12

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
kernel 6.13.0 6.18.10
linux-kernel

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