CVE-2023-53091 ext4: update s_journal_inum if it changes after journal replay

What is CVE-2023-53091?

CVE-2023-53091 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 2 May 2025. 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: update s_journal_inum if it changes after journal replay

When mounting a crafted ext4 image, s_journal_inum may change after journal replay, which is obviously unreasonable because we have successfully loaded and replayed the journal through the old s_journal_inum. And the new s_journal_inum bypasses some of the checks in ext4_get_journal(), which may trigger a null pointer dereference problem. So if s_journal_inum changes after the journal replay, we ignore the change, and rewrite the current journal_inum to the superblock.

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53091?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53091?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2023-53091 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53091 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-2023-53091, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53091, GHSA-ghqh-9ppg-g8cf, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-53091, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53091.