# CVE-2023-52770: f2fs: split initial and dynamic conditions for extent_cache

> A local attacker can trigger a kernel panic via null pointer dereference in the F2FS filesystem when compression settings are changed dynamically.

- **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:** 23 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-52770, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52770, GHSA-vrmw-4324-6mfp, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2023-52770, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52770

## What is CVE-2023-52770?

CVE-2023-52770 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:

f2fs: split initial and dynamic conditions for extent_cache

Let's allocate the extent_cache tree without dynamic conditions to avoid a
missing condition causing a panic as below.

 # create a file w/ a compressed flag
 # disable the compression
 # panic while updating extent_cache

F2FS-fs (dm-64): Swapfile: last extent is not aligned to section
F2FS-fs (dm-64): Swapfile (3) is not align to section: 1) creat(), 2) ioctl(F2FS_IOC_SET_PIN_FILE), 3) fallocate(2097152 * N)
Adding 124996k swap on ./swap-file.  Priority:0 extents:2 across:17179494468k
==================================================================
BUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in instrument_atomic_read_write out/common/include/linux/instrumented.h:101 [inline]
BUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in atomic_try_cmpxchg_acquire out/common/include/asm-generic/atomic-instrumented.h:705 [inline]
BUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in queued_write_lock out/common/include/asm-generic/qrwlock.h:92 [inline]
BUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in __raw_write_lock out/common/include/linux/rwlock_api_smp.h:211 [inline]
BUG: KASAN: null-ptr-deref in _raw_write_lock+0x5a/0x110 out/common/kernel/locking/spinlock.c:295
Write of size 4 at addr 0000000000000030 by task syz-executor154/3327

CPU: 0 PID: 3327 Comm: syz-executor154 Tainted: G           O      5.10.185 #1
Hardware name: emulation qemu-x86/qemu-x86, BIOS 2023.01-21885-gb3cc1cd24d 01/01/2023
Call Trace:
 __dump_stack out/common/lib/dump_stack.c:77 [inline]
 dump_stack_lvl+0x17e/0x1c4 out/common/lib/dump_stack.c:118
 __kasan_report+0x16c/0x260 out/common/mm/kasan/report.c:415
 kasan_report+0x51/0x70 out/common/mm/kasan/report.c:428
 kasan_check_range+0x2f3/0x340 out/common/mm/kasan/generic.c:186
 __kasan_check_write+0x14/0x20 out/common/mm/kasan/shadow.c:37
 instrument_atomic_read_write out/common/include/linux/instrumented.h:101 [inline]
 atomic_try_cmpxchg_acquire out/common/include/asm-generic/atomic-instrumented.h:705 [inline]
 queued_write_lock out/common/include/asm-generic/qrwlock.h:92 [inline]
 __raw_write_lock out/common/include/linux/rwlock_api_smp.h:211 [inline]
 _raw_write_lock+0x5a/0x110 out/common/kernel/locking/spinlock.c:295
 __drop_extent_tree+0xdf/0x2f0 out/common/fs/f2fs/extent_cache.c:1155
 f2fs_drop_extent_tree+0x17/0x30 out/common/fs/f2fs/extent_cache.c:1172
 f2fs_insert_range out/common/fs/f2fs/file.c:1600 [inline]
 f2fs_fallocate+0x19fd/0x1f40 out/common/fs/f2fs/file.c:1764
 vfs_fallocate+0x514/0x9b0 out/common/fs/open.c:310
 ksys_fallocate out/common/fs/open.c:333 [inline]
 __do_sys_fallocate out/common/fs/open.c:341 [inline]
 __se_sys_fallocate out/common/fs/open.c:339 [inline]
 __x64_sys_fallocate+0xb8/0x100 out/common/fs/open.c:339
 do_syscall_64+0x35/0x50 out/common/arch/x86/entry/common.c:46

Weakness: CWE-476 (NULL Pointer Dereference)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52770?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-52770?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-52770 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52770 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-2023-52770 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-52770 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-2023-52770 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-2023-52770/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52770/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-52770
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-52770
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-52770

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-52770/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.
