CVE-2023-53187

Published Sep 15, 2025

Last updated 3 months ago

Overview

Description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix use-after-free of new block group that became unused If a task creates a new block group and that block group becomes unused before we finish its creation, at btrfs_create_pending_block_groups(), then when btrfs_mark_bg_unused() is called against the block group, we assume that the block group is currently in the list of block groups to reclaim, and we move it out of the list of new block groups and into the list of unused block groups. This has two consequences: 1) We move it out of the list of new block groups associated to the current transaction. So the block group creation is not finished and if we attempt to delete the bg because it's unused, we will not find the block group item in the extent tree (or the new block group tree), its device extent items in the device tree etc, resulting in the deletion to fail due to the missing items; 2) We don't increment the reference count on the block group when we move it to the list of unused block groups, because we assumed the block group was on the list of block groups to reclaim, and in that case it already has the correct reference count. However the block group was on the list of new block groups, in which case no extra reference was taken because it's local to the current task. This later results in doing an extra reference count decrement when removing the block group from the unused list, eventually leading the reference count to 0. This second case was caught when running generic/297 from fstests, which produced the following assertion failure and stack trace: [589.559] assertion failed: refcount_read(&block_group->refs) == 1, in fs/btrfs/block-group.c:4299 [589.559] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [589.559] kernel BUG at fs/btrfs/block-group.c:4299! [589.560] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI [589.560] CPU: 8 PID: 2819134 Comm: umount Tainted: G W 6.4.0-rc6-btrfs-next-134+ #1 [589.560] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.2-0-gea1b7a073390-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [589.560] RIP: 0010:btrfs_free_block_groups+0x449/0x4a0 [btrfs] [589.561] Code: 68 62 da c0 (...) [589.561] RSP: 0018:ffffa55a8c3b3d98 EFLAGS: 00010246 [589.561] RAX: 0000000000000058 RBX: ffff8f030d7f2000 RCX: 0000000000000000 [589.562] RDX: 0000000000000000 RSI: ffffffff953f0878 RDI: 00000000ffffffff [589.562] RBP: ffff8f030d7f2088 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: ffffa55a8c3b3c50 [589.562] R10: 0000000000000001 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff8f05850b4c00 [589.562] R13: ffff8f030d7f2090 R14: ffff8f05850b4cd8 R15: dead000000000100 [589.563] FS: 00007f497fd2e840(0000) GS:ffff8f09dfc00000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [589.563] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [589.563] CR2: 00007f497ff8ec10 CR3: 0000000271472006 CR4: 0000000000370ee0 [589.563] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000 [589.564] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400 [589.564] Call Trace: [589.564] <TASK> [589.565] ? __die_body+0x1b/0x60 [589.565] ? die+0x39/0x60 [589.565] ? do_trap+0xeb/0x110 [589.565] ? btrfs_free_block_groups+0x449/0x4a0 [btrfs] [589.566] ? do_error_trap+0x6a/0x90 [589.566] ? btrfs_free_block_groups+0x449/0x4a0 [btrfs] [589.566] ? exc_invalid_op+0x4e/0x70 [589.566] ? btrfs_free_block_groups+0x449/0x4a0 [btrfs] [589.567] ? asm_exc_invalid_op+0x16/0x20 [589.567] ? btrfs_free_block_groups+0x449/0x4a0 [btrfs] [589.567] ? btrfs_free_block_groups+0x449/0x4a0 [btrfs] [589.567] close_ctree+0x35d/0x560 [btrfs] [589.568] ? fsnotify_sb_delete+0x13e/0x1d0 [589.568] ? dispose_list+0x3a/0x50 [589.568] ? evict_inodes+0x151/0x1a0 [589.568] generic_shutdown_super+0x73/0x1a0 [589.569] kill_anon_super+0x14/0x30 [589.569] btrfs_kill_super+0x12/0x20 [btrfs] [589.569] deactivate_locked ---truncated---
Source
416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
NVD status
Modified
Products
linux_kernel

Risk scores

CVSS 3.1

Type
Primary
Base score
7.8
Impact score
5.9
Exploitability score
1.8
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Severity
HIGH

Weaknesses

nvd@nist.gov
CWE-416

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

Configurations

  1. In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cgroup: Avoid iteration of dying tasks with zero refcount The commit 260fbcb92bbea ("cgroup: Move dying_tasks cleanup from cgroup_task_release() to cgroup_task_free()") extended the lifetime of tasks on the dying_tasks list. The iterators have provision to go through dying_tasks because of dying threadgroup leaders or explicit CSS_TASK_ITER_WITH_DEAD, however, it was expected that such tasks can obtain a new reference (that is possible before cgroup_task_release()/put_task_struct_rcu_user()). The tasks after cgroup_task_release() and before cgroup_task_free() are subject to race when they may or may not have ->usage count > 0. The race window is between css_task_iter_next() invocations when css_set_lock is released and we may arrive at a new ->task_pos. The iterator should not attempt to resurrect tasks whose ->usage count dropped to zero. (When that happens, __put_task_struct_rcu_cb() is already imminent and the returned task_struct would could be used after free.) As for the fix, we cannot simply check the signal->live count of a task on the dying list because that won't distinguish regular zombies waiting to be reaped from RCU remnant tasks that are going to be free'd. Therefore add an extra check to rule out ->usage==0 tasks from any iteration. The repeat: loop in css_task_iter_advance() doesn't consider ->usage count, so add a new loop to css_task_iter_next() to skip de-used tasks on the dying_list. Rough illustration of the possible race R (reader of cgroup.procs) T (thread) L (group leader) --------------------------------- -------------------------------- -------------------------------- L exits, signal->live > 0 cgroup_task_dead(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // skips only cset->tasks list_add_tail(&L->cg_list, &cset->dying_tasks) css_task_iter_next() take css_set_lock css_task_iter_advance() leader && signal->live != 0 => it->task_pos = &L->cg_list release css_set_lock T exits --signal->live == 0 cgroup_task_dead(T) // css_set_lock release_task(T) cgroup_task_release(T) release_task(L) // zap_leader cgroup_task_release(L) put_task_struct_rcu_user(L) ...RCU... put_task_struct(L) L->usage = 0 /* L still on dying_tasks */ ...RCU... __put_task_struct(L) css_task_iter_next() // another iteration take css_set_lock it->task_pos = &L->cg_list get_task_struct(L) => addition on 0 drop css_set_lock cgroup_task_free(L) css_set_skip_task_iters() // dying skip comes too late free_task(L) cgroup_procs_show() task_pid_vnr(L)•CVE-2026-98163