CVE-2023-53311 - CVE House
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Status published Unknown CVE-2023-53311

nilfs2: fix use-after-free of nilfs_root in dirtying inodes via iput

Vulnerability Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: nilfs2: fix use-after-free of nilfs_root in dirtying inodes via iput During unmount process of nilfs2, nothing holds nilfs_root structure after nilfs2 detaches its writer in nilfs_detach_log_writer(). Previously, nilfs_evict_inode() could cause use-after-free read for nilfs_root if inodes are left in "garbage_list" and released by nilfs_dispose_list at the end of nilfs_detach_log_writer(), and this bug was fixed by commit 9b5a04ac3ad9 ("nilfs2: fix use-after-free bug of nilfs_root in nilfs_evict_inode()"). However, it turned out that there is another possibility of UAF in the call path where mark_inode_dirty_sync() is called from iput(): nilfs_detach_log_writer() nilfs_dispose_list() iput() mark_inode_dirty_sync() __mark_inode_dirty() nilfs_dirty_inode() __nilfs_mark_inode_dirty() nilfs_load_inode_block() --> causes UAF of nilfs_root struct This can happen after commit 0ae45f63d4ef ("vfs: add support for a lazytime mount option"), which changed iput() to call mark_inode_dirty_sync() on its final reference if i_state has I_DIRTY_TIME flag and i_nlink is non-zero. This issue appears after commit 28a65b49eb53 ("nilfs2: do not write dirty data after degenerating to read-only") when using the syzbot reproducer, but the issue has potentially existed before. Fix this issue by adding a "purging flag" to the nilfs structure, setting that flag while disposing the "garbage_list" and checking it in __nilfs_mark_inode_dirty(). Unlike commit 9b5a04ac3ad9 ("nilfs2: fix use-after-free bug of nilfs_root in nilfs_evict_inode()"), this patch does not rely on ns_writer to determine whether to skip operations, so as not to break recovery on mount. The nilfs_salvage_orphan_logs routine dirties the buffer of salvaged data before attaching the log writer, so changing __nilfs_mark_inode_dirty() to skip the operation when ns_writer is NULL will cause recovery write to fail. The purpose of using the cleanup-only flag is to allow for narrowing of such conditions.

Impact Analysis

Refer to official advisory for detailed impact metrics.

Remediation

Ensure systems are updated to the latest vendor-supplied patch levels.

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Credits & Attribution

No credits recorded in the NVD database.

Affected Vendor

Affected Software

Linux
Vulnerable Versions:
0ae45f63d4ef8d8eeec49c7d8b44a1775fff13e8, 4.0, 0, 4.14.323, 4.19.292, 5.4.254, 5.10.191, 5.15.127, 6.1.46, 6.4.11, 6.5

Timeline

Official Publish: September 16th, 2025
Last Modified: May 11th, 2026
Added to House: July 22nd, 2026

CVSS Vectors

No vector data available

Weaknesses (CWE)

No CWE data available

MITRE ATT&CK TTPs

No associated TTPs found for this vulnerability.