CVE-2023-52786 ext4: fix racy may inline data check in dio write

What is CVE-2023-52786?

CVE-2023-52786 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:

ext4: fix racy may inline data check in dio write

syzbot reports that the following warning from ext4_iomap_begin() triggers as of the commit referenced below:

if (WARN_ON_ONCE(ext4_has_inline_data(inode))) return -ERANGE;

This occurs during a dio write, which is never expected to encounter an inode with inline data. To enforce this behavior, ext4_dio_write_iter() checks the current inline state of the inode and clears the MAY_INLINE_DATA state flag to either fall back to buffered writes, or enforce that any other writers in progress on the inode are not allowed to create inline data.

The problem is that the check for existing inline data and the state flag can span a lock cycle. For example, if the ilock is originally locked shared and subsequently upgraded to exclusive, another writer may have reacquired the lock and created inline data before the dio write task acquires the lock and proceeds.

The commit referenced below loosens the lock requirements to allow some forms of unaligned dio writes to occur under shared lock, but AFAICT the inline data check was technically already racy for any dio write that would have involved a lock cycle. Regardless, lift clearing of the state bit to the same lock critical section that checks for preexisting inline data on the inode to close the race.

Weakness: CWE-667

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-52786?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-52786?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2023-52786 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-52786 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel

• CVE-2026-53266 Linux Kernel Out-of-Bounds Write Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2013-6282 Linux Kernel Improper Input Validation Exploited High 8.8
• CVE-2022-0185 Linux Kernel Heap-Based Buffer Overflow Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2013-2094 Linux Kernel Privilege Escalation Exploited High 8.4
• CVE-2026-53362 Linux Kernel Unspecified Exploited High 7.8

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-52786, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-52786, GHSA-gv6c-55ww-r8wv, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-52786.