CVE-2023-53149
ext4: avoid deadlock in fs reclaim with page writeback
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- Linux
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.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Medium5.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.12% · top 98% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 5.5.
Weakness
Affected products
- affected c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f – < 385b49a1f34b26f62e3834c773560b120825b6f8
- affected c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f – < 2ec97dc90df40c50e509809dc9a198638a7e18b6
- affected c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f – < 4b4340bf04ce9a52061f15000ecedd126abc093c
- affected c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f – < 00d873c17e29cc32d90ca852b82685f1673acaa5
- affected 4.7
- unaffected < 4.7
- unaffected 6.1.191 – ≤ 6.1.*
- unaffected 6.2.16 – ≤ 6.2.*
- unaffected 6.3.3 – ≤ 6.3.*
- unaffected 6.4 – ≤ *
References (4)
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/385b49a1f34b26f62e3834c773560b120825b6f8 (opens in a new tab)
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2ec97dc90df40c50e509809dc9a198638a7e18b6 (opens in a new tab)
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4b4340bf04ce9a52061f15000ecedd126abc093c (opens in a new tab)
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/00d873c17e29cc32d90ca852b82685f1673acaa5 (opens in a new tab)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2023-53149)Record last updated .