ext4: fix racy may inline data check in dio write
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 3 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-667 and the CVSS impact.
Summary
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: fix racy may inline data check in dio write syzbot reports that the following warning from ext4_iomap_begin() triggers as of the commit referenced below: if (WARN_ON_ONCE(ext4_has_inline_data(inode))) return -ERANGE; This occurs during a dio write, which is never expected to encounter an inode with inline data. To enforce this behavior, ext4_dio_write_iter() checks the current inline state of the inode and clears the MAY_INLINE_DATA state flag to either fall back to buffered writes, or enforce that any other writers in progress on the inode are not allowed to create inline data. The problem is that the check for existing inline data and the state flag can span a lock cycle. For example, if the ilock is originally locked shared and subsequently upgraded to exclusive, another writer may have reacquired the lock and created inline data before the dio write task acquires the lock and proceeds. The commit referenced below loosens the lock requirements to allow some forms of unaligned dio writes to occur under shared lock, but AFAICT the inline data check was technically already racy for any dio write that would have involved a lock cycle. Regardless, lift clearing of the state bit to the same lock critical section that checks for preexisting inline data on the inode to close the race.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA Linux (Linux) Fixed in 6.5.13, 6.6.3, 6.7
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | Affected | No fix yet |
Not affected: 1 product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2023-52786
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-gv6c-55ww-r8wv
References
More Linux Kernel vulnerabilities
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- TI-2013-05264 The (1) get_user and (2) put_user API functions in the Linux kernel before 3.5.5 on the… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2022-00125 Integer overflow in kernel KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2013-01864 The perf_swevent_init function in kernel/events/core.c in the Linux kernel before 3.8.9… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.4
- TI-2021-05514 Heap Out-Of-Bounds Write in Netfilter IP6T_SO_SET_REPLACE KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 8.3
Sources
- CVE-2023-52786 · CVE Program
- CVE-2023-52786 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-gv6c-55ww-r8wv · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2023-52786 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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