# CVE-2023-53339: btrfs: fix BUG_ON condition in btrfs_cancel_balance

> A race condition in the btrfs filesystem can cause a kernel panic, 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:** 17 Sep 2025
- **Updated:** 11 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53339, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53339, GHSA-7gmh-9h47-r2x3, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53339

## What is CVE-2023-53339?

CVE-2023-53339 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 17 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:

btrfs: fix BUG_ON condition in btrfs_cancel_balance

Pausing and canceling balance can race to interrupt balance lead to BUG_ON
panic in btrfs_cancel_balance. The BUG_ON condition in btrfs_cancel_balance
does not take this race scenario into account.

However, the race condition has no other side effects. We can fix that.

Reproducing it with panic trace like this:

  kernel BUG at fs/btrfs/volumes.c:4618!
  RIP: 0010:btrfs_cancel_balance+0x5cf/0x6a0
  Call Trace:
   <TASK>
   ? do_nanosleep+0x60/0x120
   ? hrtimer_nanosleep+0xb7/0x1a0
   ? sched_core_clone_cookie+0x70/0x70
   btrfs_ioctl_balance_ctl+0x55/0x70
   btrfs_ioctl+0xa46/0xd20
   __x64_sys_ioctl+0x7d/0xa0
   do_syscall_64+0x38/0x80
   entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

  Race scenario as follows:
  > mutex_unlock(&fs_info->balance_mutex);
  > --------------------
  > .......issue pause and cancel req in another thread
  > --------------------
  > ret = __btrfs_balance(fs_info);
  >
  > mutex_lock(&fs_info->balance_mutex);
  > if (ret == -ECANCELED && atomic_read(&fs_info->balance_pause_req)) {
  >         btrfs_info(fs_info, "balance: paused");
  >         btrfs_exclop_balance(fs_info, BTRFS_EXCLOP_BALANCE_PAUSED);
  > }

Weakness: CWE-617 (Reachable Assertion)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53339?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53339?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53339 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53339 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-2023-53339 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53339 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 17 Sep 2025. 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-2023-53339 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-2023-53339/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53339/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53339
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53339
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53339

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53339/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.