{"id":"CVE-2026-97416","title":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nbtrfs: balance: fix potential bg lookup failure in btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk()\n\n[BUG]\nRunning btrfs balance can trigger a null-ptr-deref before relocating a\ndata chunk…","summary":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nbtrfs: balance: fix potential bg lookup failure in btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk()\n\n[BUG]\nRunning btrfs balance can trigger a null-ptr-deref before relocating a\ndata chunk…","severity":"none","vendor":"Linux","product":"Linux","affected":["Linux >= 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 < 9740dd0c17a4be8cc47a06c5ca5293471a7e286e","Linux >= 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 < 59f75e0c8724d4adebc08c7dd3ff2358b80c21f7","Linux >= 1da177e4c3f41524e886b7f1b8a0c1fc7321cac2 < 18d32b0013efba19f7ad3e5b08d7aee813d604a6","Linux < 6.12.111","Linux < 6.18.53","Linux (all versions)"],"published":"2026-09-24","updated":"2026-09-25","sourceUpdated":"2026-09-25T13:17:25.150","source":"NVD","sourceUrl":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-97416","references":[{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/18d32b0013efba19f7ad3e5b08d7aee813d604a6","label":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/59f75e0c8724d4adebc08c7dd3ff2358b80c21f7","label":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"},{"url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9740dd0c17a4be8cc47a06c5ca5293471a7e286e","label":"416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67"}],"tags":["nvd","cve.org"],"ingestedAt":"2026-09-24T16:47:15.885Z","slug":"CVE-2026-97416","body":"## Overview\n\nIn the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\nbtrfs: balance: fix potential bg lookup failure in btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk()\n\n[BUG]\nRunning btrfs balance can trigger a null-ptr-deref before relocating a\ndata chunk when metadata corruption leaves a chunk in the chunk tree\nwithout a corresponding block group in the in-memory cache:\n\n  KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000088-0x000000000000008f]\n  RIP: 0010:btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk+0x40/0x1c0 fs/btrfs/volumes.c:3601\n  Call Trace:\n    __btrfs_balance fs/btrfs/volumes.c:4217 [inline]\n    btrfs_balance+0x2516/0x42b0 fs/btrfs/volumes.c:4604\n    btrfs_ioctl_balance fs/btrfs/ioctl.c:3577 [inline]\n    btrfs_ioctl+0x25cf/0x5b90 fs/btrfs/ioctl.c:5313\n    ...\n\n[CAUSE]\n__btrfs_balance() iterates the on-disk chunk tree and passes the chunk\nlogical bytenr to btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk() before relocating a data\nchunk. That helper then queries the in-memory block group cache:\n\n  cache = btrfs_lookup_block_group(fs_info, chunk_offset);\n  chunk_type = cache->flags;   /* cache may be NULL */\n\nA corrupt image can contain a chunk item whose matching block group\nitem is missing, so no block group is ever inserted into the cache. In\nthat case btrfs_lookup_block_group() returns NULL.\n\nThe code only guards this with ASSERT(cache), which becomes a no-op when\nCONFIG_BTRFS_ASSERT is disabled. The subsequent dereference of\ncache->flags therefore crashes the kernel.\n\n[FIX]\nAdd a NULL check after btrfs_lookup_block_group() in\nbtrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk() and print and error message for clarity.\n\n## Remediation\n\nRefer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.","depth":"sunlit","depthScore":3,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":2.8,"likelihood":0,"exploitation":0,"ransomware":0},"changes":[]}