Linux Kernel Btrfs Vulnerability in Transaction Management

CVE-2023-53865

What is CVE-2023-53865?

A warning can occur in the Linux kernel's Btrfs file system during transaction management, particularly when qgroups are enabled. This warning is triggered on aborting transactions due to improper handling of the red-black tree associated with the transaction. Specifically, after freeing entries, the tree still points to these freed nodes, resulting in an inconsistent state. To mitigate this issue, the root of the red-black tree should be set to NULL to ensure proper transaction cleanup, thus avoiding unnecessary warnings.

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