# CVE-2023-52737: btrfs: lock the inode in shared mode before starting fiemap
> A race condition in the Btrfs filesystem can cause a deadlock during concurrent fiemap and fsync operations, leading to a denial of service.
- **Severity:** Medium 5.5 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 21 May 2024
- **Updated:** 1 Jun 2026
- **Also known as:** AZL-55416, BELL-CVE-2023-52737, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52737, GHSA-x5vm-26pp-xff5, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-52737, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-52737, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52737
## What is CVE-2023-52737?
CVE-2023-52737 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 May 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
### Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
btrfs: lock the inode in shared mode before starting fiemap
Currently fiemap does not take the inode's lock (VFS lock), it only locks
a file range in the inode's io tree. This however can lead to a deadlock
if we have a concurrent fsync on the file and fiemap code triggers a fault
when accessing the user space buffer with fiemap_fill_next_extent(). The
deadlock happens on the inode's i_mmap_lock semaphore, which is taken both
by fsync and btrfs_page_mkwrite(). This deadlock was recently reported by
syzbot and triggers a trace like the following:
task:syz-executor361 state:D stack:20264 pid:5668 ppid:5119 flags:0x00004004
Call Trace:
context_switch kernel/sched/core.c:5293 [inline]
__schedule+0x995/0xe20 kernel/sched/core.c:6606
schedule+0xcb/0x190 kernel/sched/core.c:6682
wait_on_state fs/btrfs/extent-io-tree.c:707 [inline]
wait_extent_bit+0x577/0x6f0 fs/btrfs/extent-io-tree.c:751
lock_extent+0x1c2/0x280 fs/btrfs/extent-io-tree.c:1742
find_lock_delalloc_range+0x4e6/0x9c0 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:488
writepage_delalloc+0x1ef/0x540 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:1863
__extent_writepage+0x736/0x14e0 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:2174
extent_write_cache_pages+0x983/0x1220 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:3091
extent_writepages+0x219/0x540 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:3211
do_writepages+0x3c3/0x680 mm/page-writeback.c:2581
filemap_fdatawrite_wbc+0x11e/0x170 mm/filemap.c:388
__filemap_fdatawrite_range mm/filemap.c:421 [inline]
filemap_fdatawrite_range+0x175/0x200 mm/filemap.c:439
btrfs_fdatawrite_range fs/btrfs/file.c:3850 [inline]
start_ordered_ops fs/btrfs/file.c:1737 [inline]
btrfs_sync_file+0x4ff/0x1190 fs/btrfs/file.c:1839
generic_write_sync include/linux/fs.h:2885 [inline]
btrfs_do_write_iter+0xcd3/0x1280 fs/btrfs/file.c:1684
call_write_iter include/linux/fs.h:2189 [inline]
new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:491 [inline]
vfs_write+0x7dc/0xc50 fs/read_write.c:584
ksys_write+0x177/0x2a0 fs/read_write.c:637
do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline]
do_syscall_64+0x3d/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80
entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd
RIP: 0033:0x7f7d4054e9b9
RSP: 002b:00007f7d404fa2f8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000001
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f7d405d87a0 RCX: 00007f7d4054e9b9
RDX: 0000000000000090 RSI: 0000000020000000 RDI: 0000000000000006
RBP: 00007f7d405a51d0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 61635f65646f6e69
R13: 65646f7475616f6e R14: 7261637369646f6e R15: 00007f7d405d87a8
INFO: task syz-executor361:5697 blocked for more than 145 seconds.
Not tainted 6.2.0-rc3-syzkaller-00376-g7c6984405241 #0
"echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message.
task:syz-executor361 state:D stack:21216 pid:5697 ppid:5119 flags:0x00004004
Call Trace:
context_switch kernel/sched/core.c:5293 [inline]
__schedule+0x995/0xe20 kernel/sched/core.c:6606
schedule+0xcb/0x190 kernel/sched/core.c:6682
rwsem_down_read_slowpath+0x5f9/0x930 kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1095
__down_read_common+0x54/0x2a0 kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1260
btrfs_page_mkwrite+0x417/0xc80 fs/btrfs/inode.c:8526
do_page_mkwrite+0x19e/0x5e0 mm/memory.c:2947
wp_page_shared+0x15e/0x380 mm/memory.c:3295
handle_pte_fault mm/memory.c:4949 [inline]
__handle_mm_fault mm/memory.c:5073 [inline]
handle_mm_fault+0x1b79/0x26b0 mm/memory.c:5219
do_user_addr_fault+0x69b/0xcb0 arch/x86/mm/fault.c:1428
handle_page_fault arch/x86/mm/fault.c:1519 [inline]
exc_page_fault+0x7a/0x110 arch/x86/mm/fault.c:1575
asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30 arch/x86/include/asm/idtentry.h:570
RIP: 0010:copy_user_short_string+0xd/0x40 arch/x86/lib/copy_user_64.S:233
Code: 74 0a 89 (...)
RSP: 0018:ffffc9000570f330 EFLAGS: 000502
---truncated---
Weakness: CWE-667 (Improper Locking)
## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52737?
It affects 1 product.
Products: Linux kernel.
## How do I fix CVE-2023-52737?
Apply the vendor's patch.
## Is CVE-2023-52737 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52737 in the wild and no public exploit code.
## Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
- [CVE-2026-53266](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53266/): Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-6282](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-6282/): Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation (high 8.8, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2022-0185](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2022-0185/): Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2013-2094](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2013-2094/): Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation (high 8.4, exploited in the wild)
- [CVE-2026-53362](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-53362/): Linux Kernel Unspecified (high 7.8, exploited in the wild)
## Fix prompt for AI coding agents
```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-52737 and fix it if it is affected.
What it is: CVE-2023-52737 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 21 May 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52737 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Affected product: Linux kernel. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.
Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.
Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52737/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52737/index.md)
```
## Sources
- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52737
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52737
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52737
---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52737/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.