CVE-2023-53149
Unknown Unknown - Not Provided
BaseFortify

Publication date: 2025-09-15

Last updated on: 2025-11-25

Assigner: kernel.org

Description
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.
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Meta Information
Published
2025-09-15
Last Modified
2025-11-25
Generated
2026-06-16
AI Q&A
2025-09-15
EPSS Evaluated
2026-06-15
NVD
CVE-2023-53149
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 3 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
linux linux_kernel 6.4
linux linux_kernel From 5.15.160 (inc) to 5.16 (inc)
linux linux_kernel From 5.15.160 (inc) to 5.16 (inc)
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-667 The product does not properly acquire or release a lock on a resource, leading to unexpected resource state changes and behaviors.
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Executive Summary

This vulnerability is a deadlock issue in the Linux kernel's ext4 filesystem. It occurs because ext4 uses a filesystem-wide lock to protect write operations, but under certain conditions, this lock can cause a deadlock when the system tries to reclaim filesystem resources during page writeback. Specifically, the deadlock happens when ext4_writepages() tries to acquire a lock that is already held, causing the process to block forever. The fix ensures that the filesystem reclaim code does not recurse into writeback code, preventing this deadlock.

Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can cause the system to hang or become unresponsive due to a deadlock in the ext4 filesystem during writeback operations. This can lead to degraded system performance, potential data loss if write operations are stalled indefinitely, and overall instability of the system relying on ext4.

Mitigation Strategies

Apply the patch or update to a Linux kernel version that includes the fix for this vulnerability, which avoids deadlocks in ext4 filesystem reclaim with page writeback by preventing recursion into filesystem reclaim from writeback code.

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