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

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2025-09-15 14:03 – Updated: 2026-05-11 19:39
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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{
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          "programFiles": [
            "fs/ext4/ext4.h",
            "fs/ext4/inode.c",
            "fs/ext4/migrate.c"
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          "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."
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    "dateReserved": "2025-05-02T15:51:43.565Z",
    "dateUpdated": "2026-05-11T19:39:23.629Z",
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}


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Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

Sightings

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Nomenclature

  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
  • Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.



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