CVE-2025-21754 | btrfs: fix assertion failure when splitting ordered extent after transaction abort

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix assertion failure when splitting ordered extent after transaction abort If while we are doing a direct IO write a transaction abort happens, we mark all existing ordered extents with the BTRFS_ORDERED_IOERR flag (done at btrfs_destroy_ordered_extents()), and then after that if we enter btrfs_split_ordered_extent() and the ordered extent has bytes left (meaning we have a bio that doesn't cover the whole ordered extent, see details at btrfs_extract_ordered_extent()), we will fail on the following assertion at btrfs_split_ordered_extent(): ASSERT(!(flags & ~BTRFS_ORDERED_TYPE_FLAGS)); because the BTRFS_ORDERED_IOERR flag is set and the definition of BTRFS_ORDERED_TYPE_FLAGS is just the union of all flags that identify the type of write (regular, nocow, prealloc, compressed, direct IO, encoded). Fix this by returning an error from btrfs_extract_ordered_extent() if we find the BTRFS_ORDERED_IOERR flag in the ordered extent. The error will be the error that resulted in the transaction abort or -EIO if no transaction abort happened. This was recently reported by syzbot with the following trace: FAULT_INJECTION: forcing a failure. name failslab, interval 1, probability 0, space 0, times 1 CPU: 0 UID: 0 PID: 5321 Comm: syz.0.0 Not tainted 6.13.0-rc5-syzkaller #0 Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2~bpo12+1 04/01/2014 Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:94 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0x241/0x360 lib/dump_stack.c:120 fail_dump lib/fault-inject.c:53 [inline] should_fail_ex+0x3b0/0x4e0 lib/fault-inject.c:154 should_failslab+0xac/0x100 mm/failslab.c:46 slab_pre_alloc_hook mm/slub.c:4072 [inline] slab_alloc_node mm/slub.c:4148 [inline] __do_kmalloc_node mm/slub.c:4297 [inline] __kmalloc_noprof+0xdd/0x4c0 mm/slub.c:4310 kmalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:905 [inline] kzalloc_noprof include/linux/slab.h:1037 [inline] btrfs_chunk_alloc_add_chunk_item+0x244/0x1100 fs/btrfs/volumes.c:5742 reserve_chunk_space+0x1ca/0x2c0 fs/btrfs/block-group.c:4292 check_system_chunk fs/btrfs/block-group.c:4319 [inline] do_chunk_alloc fs/btrfs/block-group.c:3891 [inline] btrfs_chunk_alloc+0x77b/0xf80 fs/btrfs/block-group.c:4187 find_free_extent_update_loop fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c:4166 [inline] find_free_extent+0x42d1/0x5810 fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c:4579 btrfs_reserve_extent+0x422/0x810 fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c:4672 btrfs_new_extent_direct fs/btrfs/direct-io.c:186 [inline] btrfs_get_blocks_direct_write+0x706/0xfa0 fs/btrfs/direct-io.c:321 btrfs_dio_iomap_begin+0xbb7/0x1180 fs/btrfs/direct-io.c:525 iomap_iter+0x697/0xf60 fs/iomap/iter.c:90 __iomap_dio_rw+0xeb9/0x25b0 fs/iomap/direct-io.c:702 btrfs_dio_write fs/btrfs/direct-io.c:775 [inline] btrfs_direct_write+0x610/0xa30 fs/btrfs/direct-io.c:880 btrfs_do_write_iter+0x2a0/0x760 fs/btrfs/file.c:1397 do_iter_readv_writev+0x600/0x880 vfs_writev+0x376/0xba0 fs/read_write.c:1050 do_pwritev fs/read_write.c:1146 [inline] __do_sys_pwritev2 fs/read_write.c:1204 [inline] __se_sys_pwritev2+0x196/0x2b0 fs/read_write.c:1195 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:52 [inline] do_syscall_64+0xf3/0x230 arch/x86/entry/common.c:83 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f RIP: 0033:0x7f1281f85d29 RSP: 002b:00007f12819fe038 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000148 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f1282176080 RCX: 00007f1281f85d29 RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: 0000000020000240 RDI: 0000000000000005 RBP: 00007f12819fe090 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000003 R10: 0000000000007000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 0000000000000002 R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 00007f1282176080 R15: 00007ffcb9e23328 </TASK> BTRFS error (device loop0 state A): Transaction aborted (error -12) BTRFS: error (device loop0 state A ---truncated---

Published: 2025-02-26 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67 Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2025-21754 is rated Low Risk (26.2/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.21%). Mandatory action: Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-21754

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.03% 0.21% +0.19%
2 2025-11-21 0.06% 0.03% -0.03%
3 2025-11-18 0.06%

Full EPSS history (6 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-21754

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-21754

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-21754

vendor priority summary link
debian unimportant CVE-2025-21754 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (linux), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-21754
redhat https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21754
suse medium CVE-2025-21754 severity moderate: SUSE including 417 source package names (2.1.3-6.11:kernel-default-6.4.0-28.1, 2.1.3-6.12:kernel-default-base-6.4.0-28.1.21.6, …), 759 product×package rows across 137 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container, … (137 product lines)): Fixed 361, Known Affected 231, Known Not Affected 167. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-21754/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-21754 medium priority: Ubuntu including 150 source packages (linux, linux-allwinner-5.19, …), 1487 status rows across 10 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, trusty, upstream, xenial): DNE 1097, ignored 148, released 128, not-affected 114. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-21754

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-21754

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linux linux_kernel >= 6.5, < 6.6.78 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.7, < 6.12.14 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel >= 6.13, < 6.13.3 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linux linux_kernel 6.14 cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:6.14:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-21754

cvelogic Threat Intelligence