CVE-2023-54021
Integer Underflow in Linux Kernel ext4 Causes Potential System Crash
Publication date: 2025-12-24
Last updated on: 2025-12-24
Assigner: kernel.org
Description
Description
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Meta Information
Affected Vendors & Products
| Vendor | Product | Version / Range |
|---|---|---|
| linux | linux_kernel | * |
Helpful Resources
Exploitability
| CWE ID | Description |
|---|---|
| CWE-UNKNOWN |
Attack-Flow Graph
AI Powered Q&A
Can you explain this vulnerability to me?
This vulnerability involves the ext4 filesystem in the Linux kernel where the goal start parameter was not set correctly in the ext4_mb_normalize_request function. Specifically, the code should set ac_g_ex to notify the goal start used in ext4_mb_find_by_goal, but it was incorrectly setting ac_f_ex. Additionally, there was a missing check to ensure the size is less than ar->pright, which could cause an underflow leading to a BUG_ON error later in ext4_get_group_no_and_offset.
How can this vulnerability impact me? :
This vulnerability can cause the Linux kernel ext4 filesystem code to pass an underflowed value, potentially triggering a BUG_ON, which may lead to system instability or crashes when handling filesystem operations.