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CVE-2023-53149
ext4: avoid deadlock in fs reclaim with page writeback
Published 2025-09-15 (13 months ago) by the Linux kernel CNA. Subsystem fs/ext4. Debian urgency: not yet assigned.
What to do, per Debian release
Debian's own status for CVE-2023-53149 in every release this site tracks, and what each one means in practice. Every status below is the one the Debian Security Team publishes for this CVE. source
| Release | Status | Version | What this means |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 12bookworm | vulnerable | 6.1.190-1 | No fix published anywhere yet, neither in Debian nor upstream for the series bookworm tracks. Watch the Debian tracker page for this CVE. Advisories for bookworm have historically landed a median of 23 days after publication. |
| Debian 13trixie | fixed | 6.3.7-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 6.3.7-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian 14forky | fixed | 6.3.7-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 6.3.7-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
| Debian unstablesid | fixed | 6.3.7-1 | Update the kernel and reboot. Fixed in 6.3.7-1. A running kernel keeps the old code until the machine restarts. |
The vulnerability
What the bug is
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.
Where it lives
The fix touches these files. If the subsystem is one you do not use, the practical exposure is lower, though the package is still the vulnerable one.
fs/ext4/ext4.h
fs/ext4/inode.c
fs/ext4/migrate.c
- What this is
- EXT4 FILE SYSTEMMAINTAINERS section matched on fs/ext4/ · linux-ext4@vger.kernel.org · Maintained
- Kernel module
- ext4
Check it on the machine
grep -w CONFIG_EXT4_FS /boot/config-$(uname -r)Reads the booted kernel's own configuration, on the machine and nowhere else. =y is built in, =m is a module, and an is not set line means the code is not there.
lsmod | grep -w ext4Prints a line if that module is loaded right now, and nothing if it is not. One that is not loaded can still be loaded later by anything that needs it.
Show whether Debian builds this, per release
Debian builds this code. Every release below compiles the affected file into the kernels it ships.
- bookworm, trixie, forky, sidb
- b
- built in on some flavours, a module on others
- Build switch
- CONFIG_EXT4_FS
From the configuration Debian publishes for every kernel flavour it builds. It covers only the architectures Debian ships a linux-config package for, and nothing about a kernel you built yourself. Debian's own status above stays authoritative about the source package.MAINTAINERS kbuild Makefiles Debian linux-config packages
Signals
- Published
- 2025-09-15 (13 months ago)source
- CVSS
- no vector published, unrated
- Attack vector
- not published
- EPSS
- 0.12%, higher than 1.6% of all CVEssource
- CISA KEV
- not listedthe KEV catalogue
- Debian urgency
- not yet assignedsource
- Subsystem
- fs/ext4
Upstream fixes
The versions the CNA records as introducing and fixing this, and the commit for each. source
| Introduced | Fixed in | Commit |
|---|---|---|
| 4.7 | 6.2.16 | 2ec97dc90df4 |
| 4.7 | 6.3.3 | 4b4340bf04ce |
| 4.7 | 6.4 | 00d873c17e29 |
Why the CNA scored it this way
The kernel CNA published no CVSS vector and no reasoning for CVE-2023-53149, which is why it is shown as unrated rather than given an invented score. 6,405 of the 20,413 CVEs here carry reasoning; this is not one of them.