if (this_bh) {
                BUFFER_TRACE(this_bh, "call ext4_journal_dirty_metadata");
-               ext4_journal_dirty_metadata(handle, this_bh);
+
+               /*
+                * The buffer head should have an attached journal head at this
+                * point. However, if the data is corrupted and an indirect
+                * block pointed to itself, it would have been detached when
+                * the block was cleared. Check for this instead of OOPSing.
+                */
+               if (bh2jh(this_bh))
+                       ext4_journal_dirty_metadata(handle, this_bh);
+               else
+                       ext4_error(inode->i_sb, __func__,
+                                  "circular indirect block detected, "
+                                  "inode=%lu, block=%llu",
+                                  inode->i_ino,
+                                  (unsigned long long) this_bh->b_blocknr);
        }
 }