vulnerability
Red Hat: CVE-2023-53503: kernel: ext4: allow ext4_get_group_info() to fail (Multiple Advisories)
| Severity | CVSS | Published | Added | Modified |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | (AV:L/AC:M/Au:M/C:N/I:C/A:C) | Oct 1, 2025 | Nov 14, 2025 | Jan 28, 2026 |
Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
ext4: allow ext4_get_group_info() to fail
Previously, ext4_get_group_info() would treat an invalid group number
as BUG(), since in theory it should never happen. However, if a
malicious attaker (or fuzzer) modifies the superblock via the block
device while it is the file system is mounted, it is possible for
s_first_data_block to get set to a very large number. In that case,
when calculating the block group of some block number (such as the
starting block of a preallocation region), could result in an
underflow and very large block group number. Then the BUG_ON check in
ext4_get_group_info() would fire, resutling in a denial of service
attack that can be triggered by root or someone with write access to
the block device.
For a quality of implementation perspective, it's best that even if
the system administrator does something that they shouldn't, that it
will not trigger a BUG. So instead of BUG'ing, ext4_get_group_info()
will call ext4_error and return NULL. We also add fallback code in
all of the callers of ext4_get_group_info() that it might NULL.
Also, since ext4_get_group_info() was already borderline to be an
inline function, un-inline it. The results in a next reduction of the
compiled text size of ext4 by roughly 2k.
Solutions
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