CVE-2023-53328 fs/ntfs3: Enhance sanity check while generating attr_list

Medium 5.5 Published 16 Sep 2025 Updated 11 May 2026

A null pointer dereference in the Linux kernel NTFS3 driver allows local attackers to cause a system crash via crafted filesystem operations.

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

What is CVE-2023-53328?

CVE-2023-53328 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 16 Sep 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:

fs/ntfs3: Enhance sanity check while generating attr_list

ni_create_attr_list uses WARN_ON to catch error cases while generating attribute list, which only prints out stack trace and may not be enough. This repalces them with more proper error handling flow.

[ 59.666332] BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 000000000000000e [ 59.673268] #PF: supervisor read access in kernel mode [ 59.678354] #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present page [ 59.682831] PGD 8000000005ff1067 P4D 8000000005ff1067 PUD 7dee067 PMD 0 [ 59.688556] Oops: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN PTI [ 59.692642] CPU: 0 PID: 198 Comm: poc Tainted: G B W 6.2.0-rc1+ #4 [ 59.698868] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.16.0-0-gd239552ce722-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 59.708795] RIP: 0010:ni_create_attr_list+0x505/0x860 [ 59.713657] Code: 7e 10 e8 5e d0 d0 ff 45 0f b7 76 10 48 8d 7b 16 e8 00 d1 d0 ff 66 44 89 73 16 4d 8d 75 0e 4c 89 f7 e8 3f d0 d0 ff 4c 8d8 [ 59.731559] RSP: 0018:ffff88800a56f1e0 EFLAGS: 00010282 [ 59.735691] RAX: 0000000000000001 RBX: ffff88800b7b5088 RCX: ffffffffb83079fe [ 59.741792] RDX: 0000000000000001 RSI: 0000000000000008 RDI: ffffffffbb7f9fc0 [ 59.748423] RBP: ffff88800a56f3a8 R08: ffff88800b7b50a0 R09: fffffbfff76ff3f9 [ 59.754654] R10: ffffffffbb7f9fc7 R11: fffffbfff76ff3f8 R12: ffff88800b756180 [ 59.761552] R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 000000000000000e R15: 0000000000000050 [ 59.768323] FS: 00007feaa8c96440(0000) GS:ffff88806d400000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 [ 59.776027] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 [ 59.781395] CR2: 00007f3a2e0b1000 CR3: 000000000a5bc000 CR4: 00000000000006f0 [ 59.787607] Call Trace: [ 59.790271] <TASK> [ 59.792488] ? __pfx_ni_create_attr_list+0x10/0x10 [ 59.797235] ? kernel_text_address+0xd3/0xe0 [ 59.800856] ? unwind_get_return_address+0x3e/0x60 [ 59.805101] ? __kasan_check_write+0x18/0x20 [ 59.809296] ? preempt_count_sub+0x1c/0xd0 [ 59.813421] ni_ins_attr_ext+0x52c/0x5c0 [ 59.817034] ? __pfx_ni_ins_attr_ext+0x10/0x10 [ 59.821926] ? __vfs_setxattr+0x121/0x170 [ 59.825718] ? __vfs_setxattr_noperm+0x97/0x300 [ 59.829562] ? __vfs_setxattr_locked+0x145/0x170 [ 59.833987] ? vfs_setxattr+0x137/0x2a0 [ 59.836732] ? do_setxattr+0xce/0x150 [ 59.839807] ? setxattr+0x126/0x140 [ 59.842353] ? path_setxattr+0x164/0x180 [ 59.845275] ? __x64_sys_setxattr+0x71/0x90 [ 59.848838] ? do_syscall_64+0x3f/0x90 [ 59.851898] ? entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc [ 59.857046] ? stack_depot_save+0x17/0x20 [ 59.860299] ni_insert_attr+0x1ba/0x420 [ 59.863104] ? __pfx_ni_insert_attr+0x10/0x10 [ 59.867069] ? preempt_count_sub+0x1c/0xd0 [ 59.869897] ? _raw_spin_unlock_irqrestore+0x2b/0x50 [ 59.874088] ? __create_object+0x3ae/0x5d0 [ 59.877865] ni_insert_resident+0xc4/0x1c0 [ 59.881430] ? __pfx_ni_insert_resident+0x10/0x10 [ 59.886355] ? kasan_save_alloc_info+0x1f/0x30 [ 59.891117] ? __kasan_kmalloc+0x8b/0xa0 [ 59.894383] ntfs_set_ea+0x90d/0xbf0 [ 59.897703] ? __pfx_ntfs_set_ea+0x10/0x10 [ 59.901011] ? kernel_text_address+0xd3/0xe0 [ 59.905308] ? __kernel_text_address+0x16/0x50 [ 59.909811] ? unwind_get_return_address+0x3e/0x60 [ 59.914898] ? __pfx_stack_trace_consume_entry+0x10/0x10 [ 59.920250] ? arch_stack_walk+0xa2/0x100 [ 59.924560] ? filter_irq_stacks+0x27/0x80 [ 59.928722] ntfs_setxattr+0x405/0x440 [ 59.932512] ? __pfx_ntfs_setxattr+0x10/0x10 [ 59.936634] ? kvmalloc_node+0x2d/0x120 [ 59.940378] ? kasan_save_stack+0x41/0x60 [ 59.943870] ? kasan_save_stack+0x2a/0x60 [ 59.947719] ? kasan_set_track+0x29/0x40 [ 59.951417] ? kasan_save_alloc_info+0x1f/0x30 [ 59.955733] ? __kasan_kmalloc+0x8b/0xa0 [ 59.959598] ? __kmalloc_node+0x68/0x150 [ 59.963163] ? kvmalloc_node+0x2d/0x120 [ 59.966490] ? vmemdup_user+0x2b/0xa0 ---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-476

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53328?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53328?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Is CVE-2023-53328 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53328 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53328, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53328, GHSA-q5jc-r55m-4xv5, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53328.