Answer in brief
CVE-2026-97416 records a Unknown severity vulnerability in btrfs: balance: fix potential bg lookup failure in btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk(). The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
A CVSS score is not reported in the current record. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps Linux/Linux (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| Linux/Linuxgeneric | >=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <9740dd0c17a4be8cc47a06c5ca5293471a7e286e || >=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <59f75e0c8724d4adebc08c7dd3ff2358b80c21f7 || >=1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 <18d32b0013efba19f7ad3e5b08d7aee813d604a6 || >=0 <6.12.111 || >=0 <6.18.53 | 9740dd0c17a4be8cc47a06c5ca5293471a7e286e, 59f75e0c8724d4adebc08c7dd3ff2358b80c21f7, 18d32b0013efba19f7ad3e5b08d7aee813d604a6, 6.12.111, 6.18.53 |
Published upstream
Sep 24, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Sep 24, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Sep 25, 2026
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: balance: fix potential bg lookup failure in btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk() [BUG] Running btrfs balance can trigger a null-ptr-deref before relocating a data chunk when metadata corruption leaves a chunk in the chunk tree without a corresponding block group in the in-memory cache: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000088-0x000000000000008f] RIP: 0010:btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk+0x40/0x1c0 fs/btrfs/volumes.c:3601 Call Trace: __btrfs_balance fs/btrfs/volumes.c:4217 [inline] btrfs_balance+0x2516/0x42b0 fs/btrfs/volumes.c:4604 btrfs_ioctl_balance fs/btrfs/ioctl.c:3577 [inline] btrfs_ioctl+0x25cf/0x5b90 fs/btrfs/ioctl.c:5313 ... [CAUSE] __btrfs_balance() iterates the on-disk chunk tree and passes the chunk logical bytenr to btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk() before relocating a data chunk. That helper then queries the in-memory block group cache: cache = btrfs_lookup_block_group(fs_info, chunk_offset); chunk_type = cache->flags; /* cache may be NULL */ A corrupt image can contain a chunk item whose matching block group item is missing, so no block group is ever inserted into the cache. In that case btrfs_lookup_block_group() returns NULL. The code only guards this with ASSERT(cache), which becomes a no-op when CONFIG_BTRFS_ASSERT is disabled. The subsequent dereference of cache->flags therefore crashes the kernel. [FIX] Add a NULL check after btrfs_lookup_block_group() in btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk() and print and error message for clarity.
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.