CVE-2023-53172

fsverity: reject FS_IOC_ENABLE_VERITY on mode 3 fds

MEDIUM
5.5
CVSS Score
Published: September 15, 2025 at 02:04 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: fsverity: reject FS_IOC_ENABLE_VERITY on mode 3 fds Commit 56124d6c87fd ("fsverity: support enabling with tree block size < PAGE_SIZE") changed FS_IOC_ENABLE_VERITY to use __kernel_read() to read the file's data, instead of direct pagecache accesses. An unintended consequence of this is that the 'WARN_ON_ONCE(!(file->f_mode & FMODE_READ))' in __kernel_read() became reachable by fuzz tests. This happens if FS_IOC_ENABLE_VERITY is called on a fd opened with access mode 3, which means "ioctl access only". Arguably, FS_IOC_ENABLE_VERITY should work on ioctl-only fds. But ioctl-only fds are a weird Linux extension that is rarely used and that few people even know about. (The documentation for FS_IOC_ENABLE_VERITY even specifically says it requires O_RDONLY.) It's probably not worthwhile to make the ioctl internally open a new fd just to handle this case. Thus, just reject the ioctl on such fds for now.

Affected

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

6.3 ≤ v < 6.3.16.3 ≤ v < 6.456124d6c87fd749477425110d2564166621a89c46.3
Vendor states this is fixed in 04839139213cf60d4c5fc792214a08830e294ff8 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 85c039cff3c359967cafe90443c02321e950b216 (fixed)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.3 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.3.1 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 6.4 (unaffected)

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (2)

Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/04839139213cf60d4c5fc792214a08830e294ff8
Patch
Source: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/85c039cff3c359967cafe90443c02321e950b216

CVSS

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

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
NVD-CWE-noinfo

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