CVE-2026-43299 btrfs: do not ASSERT() when the fs flips RO inside btrfs_repair_io_failure()
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

btrfs: do not ASSERT() when the fs flips RO inside btrfs_repair_io_failure()

[BUG]
There is a bug report that when btrfs hits ENOSPC error in a critical
path, btrfs flips RO (this part is expected, although the ENOSPC bug
still needs to be addressed).

The problem is after the RO flip, if there is a read repair pending, we
can hit the ASSERT() inside btrfs_repair_io_failure() like the following:

  BTRFS info (device vdc): relocating block group 30408704 flags metadata|raid1
  ------------[ cut here ]------------
  BTRFS: Transaction aborted (error -28)
  WARNING: fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c:3235 at __btrfs_free_extent.isra.0+0x453/0xfd0, CPU#1: btrfs/383844
  Modules linked in: kvm_intel kvm irqbypass
  [...]
  ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]---
  BTRFS info (device vdc state EA): 2 enospc errors during balance
  BTRFS info (device vdc state EA): balance: ended with status: -30
  BTRFS error (device vdc state EA): parent transid verify failed on logical 30556160 mirror 2 wanted 8 found 6
  BTRFS error (device vdc state EA): bdev /dev/nvme0n1 errs: wr 0, rd 0, flush 0, corrupt 10, gen 0
  [...]
  assertion failed: !(fs_info->sb->s_flags & SB_RDONLY) :: 0, in fs/btrfs/bio.c:938
  ------------[ cut here ]------------
  assertion failed: !(fs_info->sb->s_flags & SB_RDONLY) :: 0, in fs/btrfs/bio.c:938
  kernel BUG at fs/btrfs/bio.c:938!
  Oops: invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] SMP NOPTI
  CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 868 Comm: kworker/u8:13 Tainted: G        W        N  6.19.0-rc6+ #4788 PREEMPT(full)
  Tainted: [W]=WARN, [N]=TEST
  Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS rel-1.17.0-0-gb52ca86e094d-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
  Workqueue: btrfs-endio simple_end_io_work
  RIP: 0010:btrfs_repair_io_failure.cold+0xb2/0x120
  RSP: 0000:ffffc90001d2bcf0 EFLAGS: 00010246
  RAX: 0000000000000051 RBX: 0000000000001000 RCX: 0000000000000000
  RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffffffff8305cf42 RDI: 00000000ffffffff
  RBP: 0000000000000002 R08: 00000000fffeffff R09: ffffffff837fa988
  R10: ffffffff8327a9e0 R11: 6f69747265737361 R12: ffff88813018d310
  R13: ffff888168b8a000 R14: ffffc90001d2bd90 R15: ffff88810a169000
  FS:  0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff8885e752c000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
  CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
  ------------[ cut here ]------------

[CAUSE]
The cause of -ENOSPC error during the test case btrfs/124 is still
unknown, although it's known that we still have cases where metadata can
be over-committed but can not be fulfilled correctly, thus if we hit
such ENOSPC error inside a critical path, we have no choice but abort
the current transaction.

This will mark the fs read-only.

The problem is inside the btrfs_repair_io_failure() path that we require
the fs not to be mount read-only. This is normally fine, but if we are
doing a read-repair meanwhile the fs flips RO due to a critical error,
we can enter btrfs_repair_io_failure() with super block set to
read-only, thus triggering the above crash.

[FIX]
Just replace the ASSERT() with a proper return if the fs is already
read-only.
Affected products: vendor: Linux
product: Linux
default_status: unaffected
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
default_status: affected
Published: 2026-05-08T13:11:20.872Z