# CVE-2022-49913: btrfs: fix inode list leak during backref walking at find\_parent\_nodes()

- Severity: no CVSS score reported
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-05-01 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 4.14

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix inode list leak during backref walking at find_parent_nodes() During backref walking, at find_parent_nodes(), if we are dealing with a data extent and we get an error while resolving the indirect backrefs, at resolve_indirect_refs(), or in the while loop that iterates over the refs in the direct refs rbtree, we end up leaking the inode lists attached to the direct refs we have in the direct refs rbtree that were not yet added to the refs ulist passed as argument to find_parent_nodes(). Since they were not yet added to the refs ulist and prelim_release() does not free the lists, on error the caller can only free the lists attached to the refs that were added to the refs ulist, all the remaining refs get their inode lists never freed, therefore leaking their memory. Fix this by having prelim_release() always free any attached inode list to each ref found in the rbtree, and have find_parent_nodes() set the ref's inode list to NULL once it transfers ownership of the inode list to a ref added to the refs ulist passed to find_parent_nodes().

## 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.
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## 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/6a6731a0df8c47ecc703bd7bb73459df767051e0
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/61e06128113711df0534c404fb6bb528eb7d2332
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/222a3d533027b9492d5b7f5ecdc01a90f57bb5a9
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/83ea8c5b54d452a5769e605e3c5c687e8ca06d89
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/92876eec382a0f19f33d09d2c939e9ca49038ae5

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2022-49913
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