CVE-2023-53450 ext4: remove a BUG_ON in ext4_mb_release_group_pa()

What is CVE-2023-53450?

CVE-2023-53450 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 1 Oct 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: remove a BUG_ON in ext4_mb_release_group_pa()

If a malicious fuzzer overwrites the ext4 superblock while it is mounted such that the s_first_data_block is set to a very large number, the calculation of the block group can underflow, and trigger a BUG_ON check. Change this to be an ext4_warning so that we don't crash the kernel.

Weakness: CWE-617

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53450?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53450?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.

Is CVE-2023-53450 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53450 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-2023-53450, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53450, GHSA-x72c-72g3-7ffp, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53450.