CVE-2023-53149

ext4: avoid deadlock in fs reclaim with page writeback

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS Score
Published: September 15, 2025 at 02:03 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 06:44 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorLinux Kernel

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Severity
MEDIUM5.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.1%

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.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

4.7 ≤ v < 6.2.164.7 ≤ v < 6.3.34.7 ≤ v < 6.46.3 ≤ v < 6.3.34.76.4 rc1c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f
Vendor states this is fixed in 00d873c17e29cc32d90ca852b82685f1673acaa5 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 2ec97dc90df40c50e509809dc9a198638a7e18b6 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4b4340bf04ce9a52061f15000ecedd126abc093c (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4.7 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.2.16 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.3.3 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.4 (unaffected)

References (3)

Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/00d873c17e29cc32d90ca852b82685f1673acaa5
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2ec97dc90df40c50e509809dc9a198638a7e18b6
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4b4340bf04ce9a52061f15000ecedd126abc093c

CVSS

Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-667

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