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Vulnerability · Published Sep 15, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2023-53149ext4: avoid deadlock in fs reclaim with page writeback

Medium 5.5

In plain English

A medium-severity security flaw in Linux from Linux. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.1% (higher than 2% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS NVD)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.1%top 98.1% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official 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 packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linuxno fix listedDEBIAN-CVE-2023-53149
Debian:13linux6.3.7-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53149
Debian:14linux6.3.7-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinuxno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-awsno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azureno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fdeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcpno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gkeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gkeopno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-ibmno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-intelno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iotgno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-kvmno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatencyno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidiano fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-tegrano fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-tegra-igxno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.8no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracleno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-raspino fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-xilinx-zynqmpno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53149

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f – before 385b49a1f34b26f62e3834c773560b120825b6f8c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f – before 2ec97dc90df40c50e509809dc9a198638a7e18b6c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f – before 4b4340bf04ce9a52061f15000ecedd126abc093cc8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f – before 00d873c17e29cc32d90ca852b82685f1673acaa5
Linux Linux 4.7

References