CVE-2023-53243
Unknown Unknown - Not Provided
BaseFortify

Publication date: 2025-09-15

Last updated on: 2025-12-03

Assigner: kernel.org

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: add handling for RAID1C23/DUP to btrfs_reduce_alloc_profile Callers of `btrfs_reduce_alloc_profile` expect it to return exactly one allocation profile flag, and failing to do so may ultimately result in a WARN_ON and remount-ro when allocating new blocks, like the below transaction abort on 6.1. `btrfs_reduce_alloc_profile` has two ways of determining the profile, first it checks if a conversion balance is currently running and uses the profile we're converting to. If no balance is currently running, it returns the max-redundancy profile which at least one block in the selected block group has. This works by simply checking each known allocation profile bit in redundancy order. However, `btrfs_reduce_alloc_profile` has not been updated as new flags have been added - first with the `DUP` profile and later with the RAID1C34 profiles. Because of the way it checks, if we have blocks with different profiles and at least one is known, that profile will be selected. However, if none are known we may return a flag set with multiple allocation profiles set. This is currently only possible when a balance from one of the three unhandled profiles to another of the unhandled profiles is canceled after allocating at least one block using the new profile. In that case, a transaction abort like the below will occur and the filesystem will need to be mounted with -o skip_balance to get it mounted rw again (but the balance cannot be resumed without a similar abort). [770.648] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [770.648] BTRFS: Transaction aborted (error -22) [770.648] WARNING: CPU: 43 PID: 1159593 at fs/btrfs/extent-tree.c:4122 find_free_extent+0x1d94/0x1e00 [btrfs] [770.648] CPU: 43 PID: 1159593 Comm: btrfs Tainted: G W 6.1.0-0.deb11.7-powerpc64le #1 Debian 6.1.20-2~bpo11+1a~test [770.648] Hardware name: T2P9D01 REV 1.00 POWER9 0x4e1202 opal:skiboot-bc106a0 PowerNV [770.648] NIP: c00800000f6784fc LR: c00800000f6784f8 CTR: c000000000d746c0 [770.648] REGS: c000200089afe9a0 TRAP: 0700 Tainted: G W (6.1.0-0.deb11.7-powerpc64le Debian 6.1.20-2~bpo11+1a~test) [770.648] MSR: 9000000002029033 <SF,HV,VEC,EE,ME,IR,DR,RI,LE> CR: 28848282 XER: 20040000 [770.648] CFAR: c000000000135110 IRQMASK: 0 GPR00: c00800000f6784f8 c000200089afec40 c00800000f7ea800 0000000000000026 GPR04: 00000001004820c2 c000200089afea00 c000200089afe9f8 0000000000000027 GPR08: c000200ffbfe7f98 c000000002127f90 ffffffffffffffd8 0000000026d6a6e8 GPR12: 0000000028848282 c000200fff7f3800 5deadbeef0000122 c00000002269d000 GPR16: c0002008c7797c40 c000200089afef17 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 GPR20: 0000000000000000 0000000000000001 c000200008bc5a98 0000000000000001 GPR24: 0000000000000000 c0000003c73088d0 c000200089afef17 c000000016d3a800 GPR28: c0000003c7308800 c00000002269d000 ffffffffffffffea 0000000000000001 [770.648] NIP [c00800000f6784fc] find_free_extent+0x1d94/0x1e00 [btrfs] [770.648] LR [c00800000f6784f8] find_free_extent+0x1d90/0x1e00 [btrfs] [770.648] Call Trace: [770.648] [c000200089afec40] [c00800000f6784f8] find_free_extent+0x1d90/0x1e00 [btrfs] (unreliable) [770.648] [c000200089afed30] [c00800000f681398] btrfs_reserve_extent+0x1a0/0x2f0 [btrfs] [770.648] [c000200089afeea0] [c00800000f681bf0] btrfs_alloc_tree_block+0x108/0x670 [btrfs] [770.648] [c000200089afeff0] [c00800000f66bd68] __btrfs_cow_block+0x170/0x850 [btrfs] [770.648] [c000200089aff100] [c00800000f66c58c] btrfs_cow_block+0x144/0x288 [btrfs] [770.648] [c000200089aff1b0] [c00800000f67113c] btrfs_search_slot+0x6b4/0xcb0 [btrfs] [770.648] [c000200089aff2a0] [c00800000f679f60] lookup_inline_extent_backref+0x128/0x7c0 [btrfs] [770.648] [c000200089aff3b0] [c00800000f67b338] lookup_extent_backref+0x70/0x190 [btrfs] [770.648] [c000200089aff470] [c00800000f67b54c] __btrfs_free_extent+0xf4/0x1490 [btrfs] [770.648] [ ---truncated---
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Meta Information
Published
2025-09-15
Last Modified
2025-12-03
Generated
2026-05-27
AI Q&A
2025-09-15
EPSS Evaluated
2026-05-25
NVD
CVE-2023-53243
Affected Vendors & Products
Showing 4 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
linux linux_kernel From 5.5 (inc) to 5.10.188 (exc)
linux linux_kernel From 5.11 (inc) to 5.15.121 (exc)
linux linux_kernel From 5.16 (inc) to 6.1.39 (exc)
linux linux_kernel From 6.2 (inc) to 6.4.4 (exc)
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CWE ID Description
CWE-NVD-CWE-noinfo
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AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?

This vulnerability in the Linux kernel's btrfs filesystem involves the function btrfs_reduce_alloc_profile, which is responsible for selecting an allocation profile flag when allocating new blocks. The function was not updated to handle newer allocation profiles like DUP and RAID1C34. As a result, under certain conditions—specifically when a balance operation involving these unhandled profiles is canceled after allocating blocks—the function may return multiple allocation profile flags instead of exactly one. This causes a transaction abort and forces the filesystem to remount as read-only, requiring manual intervention to mount it again with a special option to skip the balance operation.


How can this vulnerability impact me? :

The impact of this vulnerability is that the btrfs filesystem may abort transactions and remount itself as read-only when allocating new blocks during certain balance operations involving unhandled allocation profiles. This can lead to filesystem instability and unavailability for write operations until the filesystem is manually remounted with the skip_balance option. Additionally, balance operations cannot be resumed without encountering similar aborts, potentially affecting system reliability and data availability.


How can this vulnerability be detected on my network or system? Can you suggest some commands?

This vulnerability can be detected by monitoring the system logs for specific BTRFS transaction abort warnings and kernel WARN_ON messages related to btrfs_reduce_alloc_profile failures. Look for log entries similar to 'BTRFS: Transaction aborted (error -22)' and warnings in the kernel log mentioning 'find_free_extent' and 'btrfs'. You can use commands such as 'dmesg | grep -i btrfs' or 'journalctl -k | grep -i btrfs' to check for these messages. Additionally, mounting issues requiring the '-o skip_balance' option may indicate the presence of this issue.


What immediate steps should I take to mitigate this vulnerability?

To mitigate this vulnerability immediately, avoid performing balance operations involving the unhandled RAID profiles (RAID1C23/DUP) that trigger the issue. If the filesystem becomes read-only due to this problem, remount it with the '-o skip_balance' option to regain read-write access. Applying the Linux kernel update that includes the fix for this issue is the definitive mitigation step once available.


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