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NVD / CVE Program· CNA Linux

CVE-2026-43338: btrfs: reserve enough transaction items for qgroup ioctls

Noroxi assessment

Priority: Monitor (action score 22/100)

  • The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
  • Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.11% (FIRST EPSS).
  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
  • Fixed version: Linux Linux 320942ce316a17b104b5814db55e42a42c2442cf, 386f5e16a383101a68e195c806b4eedb233cd1d3, 4ccd563214419cef14a54df9333ed655484e9dc8; azl3 kernel 6.6.152.1-1 on Azure Linux 3.0 Release Notes; azl3 kernel 6.6.157.1-1 on Azure Linux 3.0 Release Notes.

Low priority for now. Upgrade to Linux Linux 320942ce316a17b104b5814db55e42a42c2442cf, 386f5e16a383101a68e195c806b4eedb233cd1d3, 4ccd563214419cef14a54df9333ed655484e9dc8; azl3 kernel 6.6.152.1-1 on Azure Linux 3.0 Release Notes; azl3 kernel 6.6.157.1-1 on Azure Linux 3.0 Release Notes or later.

Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it

Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: reserve enough transaction items for qgroup ioctls Currently our qgroup ioctls don't reserve any space, they just do a transaction join, which does not reserve any space, neither for the quota tree updates nor for the delayed refs generated when updating the quota tree. The quota root uses the global block reserve, which is fine most of the time since we don't expect a lot of updates to the quota root, or to be too close to -ENOSPC such that other critical metadata updates need to resort to the global reserve. However this is not optimal, as not reserving proper space may result in a transaction abort due to not reserving space for delayed refs and then abusing the use of the global block reserve. For example, the following reproducer (which is unlikely to model any real world use case, but just to illustrate the problem), triggers such a transaction abort due to -ENOSPC when running delayed refs: $ cat test.sh #!/bin/bash DEV=/dev/nullb0 MNT=/mnt/nullb0 umount $DEV &> /dev/null # Limit device to 1G so that it's much faster to reproduce the issue. mkfs.btrfs -f -b 1G $DEV mount -o commit=600 $DEV $MNT fallocate -l 800M $MNT/filler btrfs quota enable $MNT for ((i = 1; i <= 400000; i++)); do btrfs qgroup create 1/$i $MNT done umount $MNT When running this, we can see in dmesg/syslog that a transaction abort happened: [436.490] BTRFS error (device nullb0): failed to run delayed ref for logical 30408704 num_bytes 16384 type 176 action 1 ref_mod 1: -28 [436.493] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [436.494] BTRFS: Transaction aborted (error -28) [436.495] WARNING: fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c:2247 at btrfs_run_delayed_refs+0xd9/0x110 [btrfs], CPU#4: umount/2495372 [436.497] Modules linked in: btrfs loop (...) [436.508] CPU: 4 UID: 0 PID: 2495372 Comm: umount Tainted: G W 6.19.0-rc8-btrfs-next-225+ #1 PREEMPT(full) [436.510] Tainted: [W]=WARN [436.511] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.2-0-gea1b7a073390-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [436.513] RIP: 0010:btrfs_run_delayed_refs+0xdf/0x110 [btrfs] [436.514] Code: 0f 82 ea (...) [436.518] RSP: 0018:ffffd511850b7d78 EFLAGS: 00010292 [436.519] RAX: 00000000ffffffe4 RBX: ffff8f120dad37e0 RCX: 0000000002040001 [436.520] RDX: 0000000000000002 RSI: 00000000ffffffe4 RDI: ffffffffc090fd80 [436.522] RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: ffffffffc04d1867 [436.523] R10: ffff8f18dc1fffa8 R11: 0000000000000003 R12: ffff8f173aa89400 [436.524] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: ffff8f173aa89400 R15: 0000000000000000 [436.526] FS: 00007fe59045d840(0000) GS:ffff8f192e22e000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [436.527] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [436.528] CR2: 00007fe5905ff2b0 CR3: 000000060710a002 CR4: 0000000000370ef0 [436.530] Call Trace: [436.530] <TASK> [436.530] btrfs_commit_transaction+0x73/0xc00 [btrfs] [436.531] ? btrfs_attach_transaction_barrier+0x1e/0x70 [btrfs] [436.532] sync_filesystem+0x7a/0x90 [436.533] generic_shutdown_super+0x28/0x180 [436.533] kill_anon_super+0x12/0x40 [436.534] btrfs_kill_super+0x12/0x20 [btrfs] [436.534] deactivate_locked_super+0x2f/0xb0 [436.534] cleanup_mnt+0xea/0x180 [436.535] task_work_run+0x58/0xa0 [436.535] exit_to_user_mode_loop+0xed/0x480 [436.536] ? __x64_sys_umount+0x68/0x80 [436.536] do_syscall_64+0x2a5/0xf20 [436.537] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e [436.537] RIP: 0033:0x7fe5906b6217 [436.538] Code: 0d 00 f7 (...) [436.540] RSP: 002b:00007ffcd87a61f8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 00000000000000a6 [436.541] RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: 00005618b9ecadc8 RCX: 00007fe5906b6217 [436.541] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: 0000000000000000 RDI: 00005618b9ecb100 [436.542] RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 00007ffcd87a4fe0 R09: 00000000ffffffff [436.544] R10: 0000000000000103 R11: ---truncated---

MediumCVSS 5.5 · v3.1—No exploit Fix available
Published
May 8, 2026
Updated
Oct 30, 2026
EPSS
0.1% · 1th percentile
CWE
—

Report tools

JSON

Action score

22

Monitor

Low priority for now.

CVSS
22 / 40 · 5.5 / 10
CISA KEV
0 / 30 · Not listed
EPSS
0 / 30 · 0.1%

Get told when this record changes

  • Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
  • No public exploit code on record
  • A fix has been released

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Noroxi analysis

What does it mean in your environment?

The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.

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Affected systems

Is your version affected?

Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.

VendorProduct
linuxlinux kernel

Affected versions

NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.

  • linux linux kernel3.6 and later · before 6.12.81
  • linux linux kernel6.13 and later · before 6.18.22
  • linux linux kernel6.19 and later · before 6.19.12
  • linux linux kernel7.0

Versions reported by the vendor

Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (Linux). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.

  • Linux Linux

    • 3.6affected
    • 5d13a37bd5327220e13329943d1228acfbe5934a and later · before 4ccd563214419cef14a54df9333ed655484e9dc8affected · git
    • 5d13a37bd5327220e13329943d1228acfbe5934a and later · before 320942ce316a17b104b5814db55e42a42c2442cfaffected · git
    • 5d13a37bd5327220e13329943d1228acfbe5934a and later · before bb6eb33c908edbbb4d92abdc0c6c87f21b4952e8affected · git
    • 5d13a37bd5327220e13329943d1228acfbe5934a and later · before cf930a651eef6f8d915bf0ccd60c2045974f870caffected · git
    • 5d13a37bd5327220e13329943d1228acfbe5934a and later · before 386f5e16a383101a68e195c806b4eedb233cd1d3affected · git
    • 5d13a37bd5327220e13329943d1228acfbe5934a and later · before f9a4e3015db1aeafbef407650eb8555445ca943eaffected · git
    • before 3.6not affected · semver
    • 6.1.191 and later · up to and including 6.1.*not affected · semver
    • 6.6.160 and later · up to and including 6.6.*not affected · semver

Package-level exposure

OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.

EcosystemPackageAffected rangeFix
Debian:12linuxfrom 0—
Debian:13linuxbefore 6.12.85-16.12.85-1
Debian:14linuxbefore 6.19.12-16.19.12-1

Same product

linux: all records

Other highest-scoring records for the same primary product.

  • CVE-2026-31431crypto: algif_aead - Revert to operating out-of-placeKEV
    90Now
  • CVE-2022-0847A flaw was found in the way the "flags" member of the new pipe buffer structure was lacking proper initialization in copy_page_to_iter_pipe KEV
    89Now
  • CVE-2021-22555Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACEKEV
    85Now

Published before and after this one in the same product

  • ← EarlierCVE-2026-43334May 8, 2026 · Bluetooth: SMP: force responder MITM requirements before building the pairing response
    35Monitor
  • ← EarlierCVE-2026-43337May 8, 2026 · drm/amd/display: Fix NULL pointer dereference in dcn401_init_hw()
    22Monitor
  • Later →CVE-2026-43339May 8, 2026 · ipv6: prevent possible UaF in addrconf_permanent_addr()
    31Monitor

Remediation

Which version to upgrade to

Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.

Product / packageFixed versionSource
Linux Linux320942ce316a17b104b5814db55e42a42c2442cfVendor (CNA)
Linux Linux386f5e16a383101a68e195c806b4eedb233cd1d3Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linux4ccd563214419cef14a54df9333ed655484e9dc8Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxbb6eb33c908edbbb4d92abdc0c6c87f21b4952e8Vendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxcf930a651eef6f8d915bf0ccd60c2045974f870cVendor (CNA)
Linux Linuxf9a4e3015db1aeafbef407650eb8555445ca943eVendor (CNA)
azl3 kernel 6.6.152.1-1 on Azure Linux 3.0Release NotesMicrosoft (MSRC)
azl3 kernel 6.6.157.1-1 on Azure Linux 3.0Release NotesMicrosoft (MSRC)
debian:linux6.12.85-1 · Debian:13Package registry (OSV)

Exploit status

No known public exploit

No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.

Research context

For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.

Timeline

From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.

No dated events beyond publication.

No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).

Patch and commit links

Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.

No commit or PR link among the references.

Credits

All researchers

Finders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.

No credits in the CNA record.

Variant candidates

Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.

No nightly-computed relations.

Chain candidates

An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.

—

Bug bounty scope

No known public program.

Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).

Technical details

Attack conditions

  • Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
  • A low-privileged account is enough.
  • No user action is required.
  • No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.

If successful

Confidentiality
none
Integrity
none
Availability
high · the service can be disrupted
Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality impact
None
Integrity impact
None
Availability impact
High

Weakness class (CWE)

—

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

nvd-primary

Attack context

MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.

MITRE has no CAPEC/ATT&CK mapping for this CWE.

Change log

  1. Fix✗ → ✓

For records you follow, these changes also arrive as notifications. →

References

Show all references (5 more)

Vendor advisories and official records. Exploit/PoC links are deliberately left out.

All records