CVE-2023-54224 btrfs: fix lockdep splat and potential deadlock after failure running delayed items
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

btrfs: fix lockdep splat and potential deadlock after failure running delayed items

When running delayed items we are holding a delayed node's mutex and then
we will attempt to modify a subvolume btree to insert/update/delete the
delayed items. However if have an error during the insertions for example,
btrfs_insert_delayed_items() may return with a path that has locked extent
buffers (a leaf at the very least), and then we attempt to release the
delayed node at __btrfs_run_delayed_items(), which requires taking the
delayed node's mutex, causing an ABBA type of deadlock. This was reported
by syzbot and the lockdep splat is the following:

  WARNING: possible circular locking dependency detected
  6.5.0-rc7-syzkaller-00024-g93f5de5f648d #0 Not tainted
  ------------------------------------------------------
  syz-executor.2/13257 is trying to acquire lock:
  ffff88801835c0c0 (&delayed_node->mutex){+.+.}-{3:3}, at: __btrfs_release_delayed_node+0x9a/0xaa0 fs/btrfs/delayed-inode.c:256

  but task is already holding lock:
  ffff88802a5ab8e8 (btrfs-tree-00){++++}-{3:3}, at: __btrfs_tree_lock+0x3c/0x2a0 fs/btrfs/locking.c:198

  which lock already depends on the new lock.

  the existing dependency chain (in reverse order) is:

  -> #1 (btrfs-tree-00){++++}-{3:3}:
         __lock_release kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5475 [inline]
         lock_release+0x36f/0x9d0 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5781
         up_write+0x79/0x580 kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1625
         btrfs_tree_unlock_rw fs/btrfs/locking.h:189 [inline]
         btrfs_unlock_up_safe+0x179/0x3b0 fs/btrfs/locking.c:239
         search_leaf fs/btrfs/ctree.c:1986 [inline]
         btrfs_search_slot+0x2511/0x2f80 fs/btrfs/ctree.c:2230
         btrfs_insert_empty_items+0x9c/0x180 fs/btrfs/ctree.c:4376
         btrfs_insert_delayed_item fs/btrfs/delayed-inode.c:746 [inline]
         btrfs_insert_delayed_items fs/btrfs/delayed-inode.c:824 [inline]
         __btrfs_commit_inode_delayed_items+0xd24/0x2410 fs/btrfs/delayed-inode.c:1111
         __btrfs_run_delayed_items+0x1db/0x430 fs/btrfs/delayed-inode.c:1153
         flush_space+0x269/0xe70 fs/btrfs/space-info.c:723
         btrfs_async_reclaim_metadata_space+0x106/0x350 fs/btrfs/space-info.c:1078
         process_one_work+0x92c/0x12c0 kernel/workqueue.c:2600
         worker_thread+0xa63/0x1210 kernel/workqueue.c:2751
         kthread+0x2b8/0x350 kernel/kthread.c:389
         ret_from_fork+0x2e/0x60 arch/x86/kernel/process.c:145
         ret_from_fork_asm+0x11/0x20 arch/x86/entry/entry_64.S:304

  -> #0 (&delayed_node->mutex){+.+.}-{3:3}:
         check_prev_add kernel/locking/lockdep.c:3142 [inline]
         check_prevs_add kernel/locking/lockdep.c:3261 [inline]
         validate_chain kernel/locking/lockdep.c:3876 [inline]
         __lock_acquire+0x39ff/0x7f70 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5144
         lock_acquire+0x1e3/0x520 kernel/locking/lockdep.c:5761
         __mutex_lock_common+0x1d8/0x2530 kernel/locking/mutex.c:603
         __mutex_lock kernel/locking/mutex.c:747 [inline]
         mutex_lock_nested+0x1b/0x20 kernel/locking/mutex.c:799
         __btrfs_release_delayed_node+0x9a/0xaa0 fs/btrfs/delayed-inode.c:256
         btrfs_release_delayed_node fs/btrfs/delayed-inode.c:281 [inline]
         __btrfs_run_delayed_items+0x2b5/0x430 fs/btrfs/delayed-inode.c:1156
         btrfs_commit_transaction+0x859/0x2ff0 fs/btrfs/transaction.c:2276
         btrfs_sync_file+0xf56/0x1330 fs/btrfs/file.c:1988
         vfs_fsync_range fs/sync.c:188 [inline]
         vfs_fsync fs/sync.c:202 [inline]
         do_fsync fs/sync.c:212 [inline]
         __do_sys_fsync fs/sync.c:220 [inline]
         __se_sys_fsync fs/sync.c:218 [inline]
         __x64_sys_fsync+0x196/0x1e0 fs/sync.c:218
         do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline]
         do_syscall_64+0x41/0xc0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80
         entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

  other info that
---truncated---
Affected products: vendor: Linux
product: Linux
default_status: unaffected
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
default_status: affected
Published: 2025-12-30T12:11:18.076Z