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Linux Kernel CVE-2023-53187

HIGH
Use After Free (CWE-416)
2025-09-15 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
7.8
CVSS 3.1 · NVD
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Severity by source

NVD PRIMARY
7.8 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
SUSE
HIGH
qualitative

Primary rating from NVD.

CVSS VectorNVD

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

3
Analysis Generated
Mar 28, 2026 - 19:12 vuln.today
Patch released
Mar 28, 2026 - 19:12 nvd
Patch available
CVE Published
Sep 15, 2025 - 14:15 nvd
HIGH 7.8

DescriptionCVE.org

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;

  1. 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---

AnalysisAI

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. Rated high severity (CVSS 7.8), this vulnerability is low attack complexity. This Use After Free vulnerability could allow attackers to access freed memory to execute arbitrary code or crash the application.

Technical ContextAI

This vulnerability is classified as Use After Free (CWE-416), which allows attackers to access freed memory to execute arbitrary code or crash the application. 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--- Affected products include: Linux Linux Kernel.

RemediationAI

A vendor patch is available. Apply the latest security update as soon as possible. Use smart pointers or garbage-collected languages. Set pointers to NULL after freeing. Enable memory sanitizers.

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Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: High
Product Status
Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container:2.1.3-7.57 Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/base-os-container:2.2.1-5.40 Image SL-Micro Image SL-Micro-Azure Image SL-Micro-BYOS-Azure Image SL-Micro-BYOS-EC2 Image SL-Micro-BYOS-GCE Image SL-Micro-EC2 Image SLE-Micro Image SLE-Micro-Azure Image SLE-Micro-BYOS Image SLE-Micro-BYOS-Azure Image SLE-Micro-BYOS-EC2 Image SLE-Micro-BYOS-GCE Image SLE-Micro-EC2 Image SLE-Micro-GCE Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Proxy-BYOS-Azure Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Proxy-BYOS-EC2 Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Proxy-BYOS-GCE Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-Azure-llc Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-Azure-ltd Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-BYOS-Azure Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-BYOS-EC2 Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-BYOS-GCE Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-EC2-llc Image SUSE-Multi-Linux-Manager-Server-EC2-ltd Affected
Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container:2.1.3-6.80 Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/kvm-os-container:2.2.1-5.41 Affected
Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/rt-os-container:2.1.3-7.95 Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/rt-os-container:2.2.1-5.34 Affected
Image SLES15-SP6-BYOS Image SLES15-SP6-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-Aliyun Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-GDC Image SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-SAP-CCloud Image SLES15-SP6-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-EC2-ECS-HVM Image SLES15-SP6-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-HPC-BYOS Image SLES15-SP6-HPC-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-HPC-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-HPC-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-HPC-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-HPC-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-Hardened-BYOS Image SLES15-SP6-Hardened-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-Hardened-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-Hardened-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-SAP Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-SAPCAL Image SLES15-SP6-SAPCAL-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-SAPCAL-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-SAPCAL-GCE Affected
Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Azure-3P Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Azure-LI-BYOS Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Azure-LI-BYOS-Production Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Azure-VLI-BYOS Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Azure-VLI-BYOS-Production Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-BYOS Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Hardened Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Hardened-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Hardened-BYOS Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Hardened-BYOS-Azure Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Hardened-BYOS-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Hardened-BYOS-GCE Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Hardened-EC2 Image SLES15-SP6-SAP-Hardened-GCE Affected

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CVE-2023-53187 vulnerability details – vuln.today

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