CVE Database›Document archive›CVE-2019-19039

CVE-2019-19039

kernel: information disclosure in __btrfs_free_extent in fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c

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Severity

Low

Red Hat Product Security

5.5

CVSS 3.0

Review impact separately from score.

Published · November 20, 2019

Updated · June 28, 2026

Description

__btrfs_free_extent in fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c in the Linux kernel through 5.3.12 calls btrfs_print_leaf in a certain ENOENT case, which allows local users to obtain potentially sensitive information about register values via the dmesg program. NOTE: The BTRFS development team disputes this issues as not being a vulnerability because “1) The kernel provide facilities to restrict access to dmesg - dmesg_restrict=1 sysctl option. So it's really up to the system administrator to judge whether dmesg access shall be disallowed or not. 2) WARN/WARN_ON are widely used macros in the linux kernel. If this CVE is considered valid this would mean there are literally thousands CVE lurking in the kernel - something which clearly is not the case.

CVSS score applicability

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation

Its likely that this flaw will not end up being fixed, due to this being expected behavior.

If this behavior is not derirable, it can be mitigated by explicitly setting the kernel parameter to restrict non privileged users with the command:

sudo sysctl -w kernel.dmesg_restrict=1

And to make persistent between systme reboots.

echo 'kernel.dmesg_restrict=1' | sudo tee -a /etc/sysctl.conf

CVSS / CWE

CVSS 3.0 · 5.5
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

CWE-200 · Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor