Vulnerability · Published Sep 17, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2023-53339btrfs: fix BUG_ON condition in btrfs_cancel_balance

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 0.2% (higher than 11% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS NVD)5.5Medium
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 89.4% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsnot in CISA KEV
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix BUG_ON condition in btrfs_cancel_balance Pausing and canceling balance can race to interrupt balance lead to BUG_ON panic in btrfs_cancel_balance. The BUG_ON condition in btrfs_cancel_balance does not take this race scenario into account. However, the race condition has no other side effects. We can fix that. Reproducing it with panic trace like this: kernel BUG at fs/btrfs/volumes.c:4618! RIP: 0010:btrfs_cancel_balance+0x5cf/0x6a0 Call Trace: <TASK> ? do_nanosleep+0x60/0x120 ? hrtimer_nanosleep+0xb7/0x1a0 ? sched_core_clone_cookie+0x70/0x70 btrfs_ioctl_balance_ctl+0x55/0x70 btrfs_ioctl+0xa46/0xd20 __x64_sys_ioctl+0x7d/0xa0 do_syscall_64+0x38/0x80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd Race scenario as follows: > mutex_unlock(&fs_info->balance_mutex); > -------------------- > .......issue pause and cancel req in another thread > -------------------- > ret = __btrfs_balance(fs_info); > > mutex_lock(&fs_info->balance_mutex); > if (ret == -ECANCELED && atomic_read(&fs_info->balance_pause_req)) { > btrfs_info(fs_info, "balance: paused"); > btrfs_exclop_balance(fs_info, BTRFS_EXCLOP_BALANCE_PAUSED); > }

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linux6.1.52-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53339
Debian:13linux6.4.13-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53339
Debian:14linux6.4.13-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-intelno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.8no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux ddf7e8984c83aee9122552529f4e77291903f8d9 – before ceb9ba8e30833a4823e2dc73f80ebcdf2498d01a72efe5d44821e38540888a5fe3ff3d0faab6acad – before ae81329f7de3aa6f34ecdfa5412e72161a30e9ceb19c98f237cd76981aaded52c258ce93f7daa8cb – before 29eefa6d0d07e185f7bfe9576f91e6dba98189c2
Linux Linux 6.1.42 – before 6.1.476.4.7 – before 6.4.12

References