SB2026092525 - NULL pointer dereference in Linux kernel btrfs

Description

This security bulletin contains information about 1 vulnerability.

1) NULL pointer dereference (CVE-ID: CVE-2026-97416)

CWE-ID: CWE-476 - NULL Pointer Dereference

CVSSv4: 5.7 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]

The vulnerability allows a local user to cause a denial of service.

The vulnerability exists due to a null pointer dereference in btrfs_may_alloc_data_chunk() when processing corrupted Btrfs metadata during a balance operation. A local user can trigger a Btrfs balance operation on a filesystem whose chunk tree contains a chunk without a corresponding block group to cause a denial of service.

The issue occurs when CONFIG_BTRFS_ASSERT is disabled.

Remediation

Install update from vendor's website.

References

• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/18d32b0013efba19f7ad3e5b08d7aee813d604a6
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/59f75e0c8724d4adebc08c7dd3ff2358b80c21f7
• https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9740dd0c17a4be8cc47a06c5ca5293471a7e286e