Vulnerability · Published Sep 18, 2025 · Assigned by Linux

CVE-2023-53440nilfs2: fix sysfs interface lifetime

High 7.8

In plain English

A high-severity null pointer dereference 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 4% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.8High
Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 95.6% 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: nilfs2: fix sysfs interface lifetime The current nilfs2 sysfs support has issues with the timing of creation and deletion of sysfs entries, potentially leading to null pointer dereferences, use-after-free, and lockdep warnings. Some of the sysfs attributes for nilfs2 per-filesystem instance refer to metadata file "cpfile", "sufile", or "dat", but nilfs_sysfs_create_device_group that creates those attributes is executed before the inodes for these metadata files are loaded, and nilfs_sysfs_delete_device_group which deletes these sysfs entries is called after releasing their metadata file inodes. Therefore, access to some of these sysfs attributes may occur outside of the lifetime of these metadata files, resulting in inode NULL pointer dereferences or use-after-free. In addition, the call to nilfs_sysfs_create_device_group() is made during the locking period of the semaphore "ns_sem" of nilfs object, so the shrinker call caused by the memory allocation for the sysfs entries, may derive lock dependencies "ns_sem" -> (shrinker) -> "locks acquired in nilfs_evict_inode()". Since nilfs2 may acquire "ns_sem" deep in the call stack holding other locks via its error handler __nilfs_error(), this causes lockdep to report circular locking. This is a false positive and no circular locking actually occurs as no inodes exist yet when nilfs_sysfs_create_device_group() is called. Fortunately, the lockdep warnings can be resolved by simply moving the call to nilfs_sysfs_create_device_group() out of "ns_sem". This fixes these sysfs issues by revising where the device's sysfs interface is created/deleted and keeping its lifetime within the lifetime of the metadata files above.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:12linux6.1.25-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53440
Debian:13linux6.1.25-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53440
Debian:14linux6.1.25-1DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux5.15.0-79.86UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-allwinner-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws5.15.0-1042.47UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-aws-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure5.15.0-1045.52UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde5.15.0-1045.52.1UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-azure-fde-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp5.15.0-1039.47UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gcp-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gke5.15.0-1039.44UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-gkeop5.15.0-1025.30UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-ibm5.15.0-1035.38UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-intelno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iot-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-intel-iotg5.15.0-1037.42UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-kvm5.15.0-1039.44UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency5.15.0-79.88UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-lowlatency-hwe-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia5.15.0-1030.30UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-tegra5.15.0-1016.16UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-nvidia-tegra-igx5.15.0-1002.2UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-5.17no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.0no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.1no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.11no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-oem-6.8no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle5.15.0-1040.46UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-oracle-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-raspi5.15.0-1035.38UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-raspi-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-realtimeno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:24.04:LTSlinux-riscvno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-riscv-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-5.19no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.2no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-starfive-6.5no fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440
Ubuntu:22.04:LTSlinux-xilinx-zynqmp5.15.0-1025.29UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53440

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
Linux Linux dd70edbde2627f47df118d899de6bbb55abcfdbf – before d20dcec8f326deb77b6688f8441e014045dac457dd70edbde2627f47df118d899de6bbb55abcfdbf – before 5fe0ea141fbb887d407f1bf572ebf24427480d5cdd70edbde2627f47df118d899de6bbb55abcfdbf – before 83b16a60e413148685739635901937e2f16a7873dd70edbde2627f47df118d899de6bbb55abcfdbf – before 3dbee84bf9e3273c4bb9ca6fc18ff22fba23dd24dd70edbde2627f47df118d899de6bbb55abcfdbf – before d540aea451ab5489777a8156560f1388449b3109dd70edbde2627f47df118d899de6bbb55abcfdbf – before 1942ccb7d95f287a312fcbabfa8bc9ba501b1953dd70edbde2627f47df118d899de6bbb55abcfdbf – before daf4eb3a908b108279b60172d2f176e70d2df875dd70edbde2627f47df118d899de6bbb55abcfdbf – before 42560f9c92cc43dce75dbf06cc0d840dced39b12
Linux Linux 3.17

Weakness: CWE-476 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

References