CVE-2025-68778
btrfs: don't log conflicting inode if it's a dir moved in the current transaction
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: don't log conflicting inode if it's a dir moved in the current transaction We can't log a conflicting inode if it's a directory and it was moved from one parent directory to another parent directory in the current transaction, as this can result an attempt to have a directory with two hard links during log replay, one for the old parent directory and another for the new parent directory. The following scenario triggers that issue: 1) We have directories "dir1" and "dir2" created in a past transaction. Directory "dir1" has inode A as its parent directory; 2) We move "dir1" to some other directory; 3) We create a file with the name "dir1" in directory inode A; 4) We fsync the new file. This results in logging the inode of the new file and the inode for the directory "dir1" that was previously moved in the current transaction. So the log tree has the INODE_REF item for the new location of "dir1"; 5) We move the new file to some other directory. This results in updating the log tree to included the new INODE_REF for the new location of the file and removes the INODE_REF for the old location. This happens during the rename when we call btrfs_log_new_name(); 6) We fsync the file, and that persists the log tree changes done in the previous step (btrfs_log_new_name() only updates the log tree in memory); 7) We have a power failure; 8) Next time the fs is mounted, log replay happens and when processing the inode for directory "dir1" we find a new INODE_REF and add that link, but we don't remove the old link of the inode since we have not logged the old parent directory of the directory inode "dir1". As a result after log replay finishes when we trigger writeback of the subvolume tree's extent buffers, the tree check will detect that we have a directory a hard link count of 2 and we get a mount failure. The errors and stack traces reported in dmesg/syslog are like this: [ 3845.729764] BTRFS info (device dm-0): start tree-log replay [ 3845.730304] page: refcount:3 mapcount:0 mapping:000000005c8a3027 index:0x1d00 pfn:0x11510c [ 3845.731236] memcg:ffff9264c02f4e00 [ 3845.731751] aops:btree_aops [btrfs] ino:1 [ 3845.732300] flags: 0x17fffc00000400a(uptodate|private|writeback|node=0|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x1ffff) [ 3845.733346] raw: 017fffc00000400a 0000000000000000 dead000000000122 ffff9264d978aea8 [ 3845.734265] raw: 0000000000001d00 ffff92650e6d4738 00000003ffffffff ffff9264c02f4e00 [ 3845.735305] page dumped because: eb page dump [ 3845.735981] BTRFS critical (device dm-0): corrupt leaf: root=5 block=30408704 slot=6 ino=257, invalid nlink: has 2 expect no more than 1 for dir [ 3845.737786] BTRFS info (device dm-0): leaf 30408704 gen 10 total ptrs 17 free space 14881 owner 5 [ 3845.737789] BTRFS info (device dm-0): refs 4 lock_owner 0 current 30701 [ 3845.737792] item 0 key (256 INODE_ITEM 0) itemoff 16123 itemsize 160 [ 3845.737794] inode generation 3 transid 9 size 16 nbytes 16384 [ 3845.737795] block group 0 mode 40755 links 1 uid 0 gid 0 [ 3845.737797] rdev 0 sequence 2 flags 0x0 [ 3845.737798] atime 1764259517.0 [ 3845.737800] ctime 1764259517.572889464 [ 3845.737801] mtime 1764259517.572889464 [ 3845.737802] otime 1764259517.0 [ 3845.737803] item 1 key (256 INODE_REF 256) itemoff 16111 itemsize 12 [ 3845.737805] index 0 name_len 2 [ 3845.737807] item 2 key (256 DIR_ITEM 2363071922) itemoff 16077 itemsize 34 [ 3845.737808] location key (257 1 0) type 2 [ 3845.737810] transid 9 data_len 0 name_len 4 [ 3845.737811] item 3 key (256 DIR_ITEM 2676584006) itemoff 16043 itemsize 34 [ 3845.737813] location key (258 1 0) type 2 [ 3845.737814] transid 9 data_len 0 name_len 4 [ 3845.737815] item 4 key (256 DIR_INDEX 2) itemoff 16009 itemsize 34 [ 3845.737816] location key (257 1 0) type 2 [ ---truncated---
INFO
Published Date :
Jan. 13, 2026, 4:15 p.m.
Last Modified :
Jan. 13, 2026, 4:15 p.m.
Remotely Exploit :
No
Source :
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Affected Products
The following products are affected by CVE-2025-68778
vulnerability.
Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the
products
that
are
affected, the information is not represented in the table below.
No affected product recoded yet
Solution
- Update the Linux kernel to the patched version.
- Reboot the system after applying the update.
- Verify the system boots without corruption errors.
- Monitor system logs for recurring issues.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth
information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to
CVE-2025-68778.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies
specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or
weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2025-68778 is
associated with the following CWEs:
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification
(CAPEC)
stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and
approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2025-68778
weaknesses.
We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).
Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.
The following list is the news that have been mention
CVE-2025-68778 vulnerability anywhere in the article.
The following table lists the changes that have been made to the
CVE-2025-68778 vulnerability over time.
Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.
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New CVE Received by 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
Jan. 13, 2026
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Description In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: don't log conflicting inode if it's a dir moved in the current transaction We can't log a conflicting inode if it's a directory and it was moved from one parent directory to another parent directory in the current transaction, as this can result an attempt to have a directory with two hard links during log replay, one for the old parent directory and another for the new parent directory. The following scenario triggers that issue: 1) We have directories "dir1" and "dir2" created in a past transaction. Directory "dir1" has inode A as its parent directory; 2) We move "dir1" to some other directory; 3) We create a file with the name "dir1" in directory inode A; 4) We fsync the new file. This results in logging the inode of the new file and the inode for the directory "dir1" that was previously moved in the current transaction. So the log tree has the INODE_REF item for the new location of "dir1"; 5) We move the new file to some other directory. This results in updating the log tree to included the new INODE_REF for the new location of the file and removes the INODE_REF for the old location. This happens during the rename when we call btrfs_log_new_name(); 6) We fsync the file, and that persists the log tree changes done in the previous step (btrfs_log_new_name() only updates the log tree in memory); 7) We have a power failure; 8) Next time the fs is mounted, log replay happens and when processing the inode for directory "dir1" we find a new INODE_REF and add that link, but we don't remove the old link of the inode since we have not logged the old parent directory of the directory inode "dir1". As a result after log replay finishes when we trigger writeback of the subvolume tree's extent buffers, the tree check will detect that we have a directory a hard link count of 2 and we get a mount failure. The errors and stack traces reported in dmesg/syslog are like this: [ 3845.729764] BTRFS info (device dm-0): start tree-log replay [ 3845.730304] page: refcount:3 mapcount:0 mapping:000000005c8a3027 index:0x1d00 pfn:0x11510c [ 3845.731236] memcg:ffff9264c02f4e00 [ 3845.731751] aops:btree_aops [btrfs] ino:1 [ 3845.732300] flags: 0x17fffc00000400a(uptodate|private|writeback|node=0|zone=2|lastcpupid=0x1ffff) [ 3845.733346] raw: 017fffc00000400a 0000000000000000 dead000000000122 ffff9264d978aea8 [ 3845.734265] raw: 0000000000001d00 ffff92650e6d4738 00000003ffffffff ffff9264c02f4e00 [ 3845.735305] page dumped because: eb page dump [ 3845.735981] BTRFS critical (device dm-0): corrupt leaf: root=5 block=30408704 slot=6 ino=257, invalid nlink: has 2 expect no more than 1 for dir [ 3845.737786] BTRFS info (device dm-0): leaf 30408704 gen 10 total ptrs 17 free space 14881 owner 5 [ 3845.737789] BTRFS info (device dm-0): refs 4 lock_owner 0 current 30701 [ 3845.737792] item 0 key (256 INODE_ITEM 0) itemoff 16123 itemsize 160 [ 3845.737794] inode generation 3 transid 9 size 16 nbytes 16384 [ 3845.737795] block group 0 mode 40755 links 1 uid 0 gid 0 [ 3845.737797] rdev 0 sequence 2 flags 0x0 [ 3845.737798] atime 1764259517.0 [ 3845.737800] ctime 1764259517.572889464 [ 3845.737801] mtime 1764259517.572889464 [ 3845.737802] otime 1764259517.0 [ 3845.737803] item 1 key (256 INODE_REF 256) itemoff 16111 itemsize 12 [ 3845.737805] index 0 name_len 2 [ 3845.737807] item 2 key (256 DIR_ITEM 2363071922) itemoff 16077 itemsize 34 [ 3845.737808] location key (257 1 0) type 2 [ 3845.737810] transid 9 data_len 0 name_len 4 [ 3845.737811] item 3 key (256 DIR_ITEM 2676584006) itemoff 16043 itemsize 34 [ 3845.737813] location key (258 1 0) type 2 [ 3845.737814] transid 9 data_len 0 name_len 4 [ 3845.737815] item 4 key (256 DIR_INDEX 2) itemoff 16009 itemsize 34 [ 3845.737816] location key (257 1 0) type 2 [ ---truncated--- Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/266273eaf4d99475f1ae57f687b3e42bc71ec6f0 Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/7359e1d39c78816ecbdb0cb4e93975794ce53973 Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a35788ddf8df65837897ecbb0ddb2896b863159e Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d478f50727c3ee46d0359f0d2ae114f70191816e Added Reference https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d64f3834dffef80f0a9185a037617a54ed7f4bd2