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.
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May 8, 2026, 13:11 UTC (UTC+00:00)
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