CVE-2023-53149 (GCVE-0-2023-53149)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2025-09-15 14:03 – Updated: 2025-09-15 14:03
VLAI?
Title
ext4: avoid deadlock in fs reclaim with page writeback
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: avoid deadlock in fs reclaim with page writeback Ext4 has a filesystem wide lock protecting ext4_writepages() calls to avoid races with switching of journalled data flag or inode format. This lock can however cause a deadlock like: CPU0 CPU1 ext4_writepages() percpu_down_read(sbi->s_writepages_rwsem); ext4_change_inode_journal_flag() percpu_down_write(sbi->s_writepages_rwsem); - blocks, all readers block from now on ext4_do_writepages() ext4_init_io_end() kmem_cache_zalloc(io_end_cachep, GFP_KERNEL) fs_reclaim frees dentry... dentry_unlink_inode() iput() - last ref => iput_final() - inode dirty => write_inode_now()... ext4_writepages() tries to acquire sbi->s_writepages_rwsem and blocks forever Make sure we cannot recurse into filesystem reclaim from writeback code to avoid the deadlock.
Severity ?
No CVSS data available.
Assigner
References
Impacted products
Vendor Product Version
Linux Linux Affected: c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f , < 2ec97dc90df40c50e509809dc9a198638a7e18b6 (git)
Affected: c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f , < 4b4340bf04ce9a52061f15000ecedd126abc093c (git)
Affected: c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f , < 00d873c17e29cc32d90ca852b82685f1673acaa5 (git)
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    Linux Linux Affected: 4.7
Unaffected: 0 , < 4.7 (semver)
Unaffected: 6.2.16 , ≤ 6.2.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.3.3 , ≤ 6.3.* (semver)
Unaffected: 6.4 , ≤ * (original_commit_for_fix)
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{
  "containers": {
    "cna": {
      "affected": [
        {
          "defaultStatus": "unaffected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "fs/ext4/ext4.h",
            "fs/ext4/inode.c",
            "fs/ext4/migrate.c"
          ],
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
          "vendor": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "lessThan": "2ec97dc90df40c50e509809dc9a198638a7e18b6",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f",
              "versionType": "git"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "4b4340bf04ce9a52061f15000ecedd126abc093c",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f",
              "versionType": "git"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "00d873c17e29cc32d90ca852b82685f1673acaa5",
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f",
              "versionType": "git"
            }
          ]
        },
        {
          "defaultStatus": "affected",
          "product": "Linux",
          "programFiles": [
            "fs/ext4/ext4.h",
            "fs/ext4/inode.c",
            "fs/ext4/migrate.c"
          ],
          "repo": "https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git",
          "vendor": "Linux",
          "versions": [
            {
              "status": "affected",
              "version": "4.7"
            },
            {
              "lessThan": "4.7",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "0",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "6.2.*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "6.2.16",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "6.3.*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "6.3.3",
              "versionType": "semver"
            },
            {
              "lessThanOrEqual": "*",
              "status": "unaffected",
              "version": "6.4",
              "versionType": "original_commit_for_fix"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "cpeApplicability": [
        {
          "nodes": [
            {
              "cpeMatch": [
                {
                  "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                  "versionEndExcluding": "6.2.16",
                  "versionStartIncluding": "4.7",
                  "vulnerable": true
                },
                {
                  "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                  "versionEndExcluding": "6.3.3",
                  "versionStartIncluding": "4.7",
                  "vulnerable": true
                },
                {
                  "criteria": "cpe:2.3:o:linux:linux_kernel:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                  "versionEndExcluding": "6.4",
                  "versionStartIncluding": "4.7",
                  "vulnerable": true
                }
              ],
              "negate": false,
              "operator": "OR"
            }
          ]
        }
      ],
      "descriptions": [
        {
          "lang": "en",
          "value": "In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\next4: avoid deadlock in fs reclaim with page writeback\n\nExt4 has a filesystem wide lock protecting ext4_writepages() calls to\navoid races with switching of journalled data flag or inode format. This\nlock can however cause a deadlock like:\n\nCPU0                            CPU1\n\next4_writepages()\n  percpu_down_read(sbi-\u003es_writepages_rwsem);\n                                ext4_change_inode_journal_flag()\n                                  percpu_down_write(sbi-\u003es_writepages_rwsem);\n                                    - blocks, all readers block from now on\n  ext4_do_writepages()\n    ext4_init_io_end()\n      kmem_cache_zalloc(io_end_cachep, GFP_KERNEL)\n        fs_reclaim frees dentry...\n          dentry_unlink_inode()\n            iput() - last ref =\u003e\n              iput_final() - inode dirty =\u003e\n                write_inode_now()...\n                  ext4_writepages() tries to acquire sbi-\u003es_writepages_rwsem\n                    and blocks forever\n\nMake sure we cannot recurse into filesystem reclaim from writeback code\nto avoid the deadlock."
        }
      ],
      "providerMetadata": {
        "dateUpdated": "2025-09-15T14:03:13.334Z",
        "orgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
        "shortName": "Linux"
      },
      "references": [
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2ec97dc90df40c50e509809dc9a198638a7e18b6"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4b4340bf04ce9a52061f15000ecedd126abc093c"
        },
        {
          "url": "https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/00d873c17e29cc32d90ca852b82685f1673acaa5"
        }
      ],
      "title": "ext4: avoid deadlock in fs reclaim with page writeback",
      "x_generator": {
        "engine": "bippy-1.2.0"
      }
    }
  },
  "cveMetadata": {
    "assignerOrgId": "416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67",
    "assignerShortName": "Linux",
    "cveId": "CVE-2023-53149",
    "datePublished": "2025-09-15T14:03:13.334Z",
    "dateReserved": "2025-05-02T15:51:43.565Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2025-09-15T14:03:13.334Z",
    "state": "PUBLISHED"
  },
  "dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
  "dataVersion": "5.1"
}


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