---
id: CVE-2025-38059
title: 'btrfs: avoid NULL pointer dereference if no valid csum tree'
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  btrfs: avoid NULL pointer dereference if no valid csum tree

  [BUG]
  When trying read-only scrub on a btrfs with rescue=idatacsums mount
  option, it will crash with the fo…
severity: none
vendor: Linux
product: Linux
affected:
  - >-
    Linux >= 74ef00185eb864252156022ff129b01549504175 <
    2db25048a61c0909459b074af04e06ab8a8b939e
  - >-
    Linux >= 74ef00185eb864252156022ff129b01549504175 <
    50d0de59f66cbe6d597481e099bf1c70fd07e0a9
  - >-
    Linux >= 74ef00185eb864252156022ff129b01549504175 <
    6e9770de024964b1017f99ee94f71967bd6edaeb
  - >-
    Linux >= 74ef00185eb864252156022ff129b01549504175 <
    d35bed14b0bc95c6845863a3744ecd10b888c830
  - >-
    Linux >= 74ef00185eb864252156022ff129b01549504175 <
    f95d186255b319c48a365d47b69bd997fecb674e
  - Linux 5.9
published: '2025-06-18'
updated: '2026-10-30'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-30T12:21:37.047Z'
source: CVEORG
sourceUrl: 'https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-38059'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2db25048a61c0909459b074af04e06ab8a8b939e'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/50d0de59f66cbe6d597481e099bf1c70fd07e0a9'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6e9770de024964b1017f99ee94f71967bd6edaeb'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/d35bed14b0bc95c6845863a3744ecd10b888c830'
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f95d186255b319c48a365d47b69bd997fecb674e'
tags:
  - cve.org
epss: 0.00194
epssPercentile: 0.09196
ingestedAt: '2026-11-03T17:50:48.367Z'
---

## Overview

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

btrfs: avoid NULL pointer dereference if no valid csum tree

[BUG]
When trying read-only scrub on a btrfs with rescue=idatacsums mount
option, it will crash with the following call trace:

  BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000208
  #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode
  #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page
  CPU: 1 UID: 0 PID: 835 Comm: btrfs Tainted: G           O        6.15.0-rc3-custom+ #236 PREEMPT(full)
  Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS unknown 02/02/2022
  RIP: 0010:btrfs_lookup_csums_bitmap+0x49/0x480 [btrfs]
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   scrub_find_fill_first_stripe+0x35b/0x3d0 [btrfs]
   scrub_simple_mirror+0x175/0x290 [btrfs]
   scrub_stripe+0x5f7/0x6f0 [btrfs]
   scrub_chunk+0x9a/0x150 [btrfs]
   scrub_enumerate_chunks+0x333/0x660 [btrfs]
   btrfs_scrub_dev+0x23e/0x600 [btrfs]
   btrfs_ioctl+0x1dcf/0x2f80 [btrfs]
   __x64_sys_ioctl+0x97/0xc0
   do_syscall_64+0x4f/0x120
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x76/0x7e

[CAUSE]
Mount option "rescue=idatacsums" will completely skip loading the csum
tree, so that any data read will not find any data csum thus we will
ignore data checksum verification.

Normally call sites utilizing csum tree will check the fs state flag
NO_DATA_CSUMS bit, but unfortunately scrub does not check that bit at all.

This results in scrub to call btrfs_search_slot() on a NULL pointer
and triggered above crash.

[FIX]
Check both extent and csum tree root before doing any tree search.

## Affected

- `Linux >= 74ef00185eb864252156022ff129b01549504175 < 2db25048a61c0909459b074af04e06ab8a8b939e`
- `Linux >= 74ef00185eb864252156022ff129b01549504175 < 50d0de59f66cbe6d597481e099bf1c70fd07e0a9`
- `Linux >= 74ef00185eb864252156022ff129b01549504175 < 6e9770de024964b1017f99ee94f71967bd6edaeb`
- `Linux >= 74ef00185eb864252156022ff129b01549504175 < d35bed14b0bc95c6845863a3744ecd10b888c830`
- `Linux >= 74ef00185eb864252156022ff129b01549504175 < f95d186255b319c48a365d47b69bd997fecb674e`
- `Linux 5.9`

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.