CVE-2023-53486 fs/ntfs3: Enhance the attribute size check

High 7.8 Published 1 Oct 2025 Updated 5 Aug 2026

A slab-out-of-bounds read in the Linux kernel NTFS3 driver allows attackers to cause a denial of service or potentially execute code via a crafted filesystem image.

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-2023-53486?

CVE-2023-53486 is a high-severity memory corruption 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:

fs/ntfs3: Enhance the attribute size check

This combines the overflow and boundary check so that all attribute size will be properly examined while enumerating them.

[ 169.181521] BUG: KASAN: slab-out-of-bounds in run_unpack+0x2e3/0x570 [ 169.183161] Read of size 1 at addr ffff8880094b6240 by task mount/247 [ 169.184046] [ 169.184925] CPU: 0 PID: 247 Comm: mount Not tainted 6.0.0-rc7+ #3 [ 169.185908] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.14.0-0-g155821a1990b-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014 [ 169.187066] Call Trace: [ 169.187492] <TASK> [ 169.188049] dump_stack_lvl+0x49/0x63 [ 169.188495] print_report.cold+0xf5/0x689 [ 169.188964] ? run_unpack+0x2e3/0x570 [ 169.189331] kasan_report+0xa7/0x130 [ 169.189714] ? run_unpack+0x2e3/0x570 [ 169.190079] __asan_load1+0x51/0x60 [ 169.190634] run_unpack+0x2e3/0x570 [ 169.191290] ? run_pack+0x840/0x840 [ 169.191569] ? run_lookup_entry+0xb3/0x1f0 [ 169.192443] ? mi_enum_attr+0x20a/0x230 [ 169.192886] run_unpack_ex+0xad/0x3e0 [ 169.193276] ? run_unpack+0x570/0x570 [ 169.193557] ? ni_load_mi+0x80/0x80 [ 169.193889] ? debug_smp_processor_id+0x17/0x20 [ 169.194236] ? mi_init+0x4a/0x70 [ 169.194496] attr_load_runs_vcn+0x166/0x1c0 [ 169.194851] ? attr_data_write_resident+0x250/0x250 [ 169.195188] mi_read+0x133/0x2c0 [ 169.195481] ntfs_iget5+0x277/0x1780 [ 169.196017] ? call_rcu+0x1c7/0x330 [ 169.196392] ? ntfs_get_block_bmap+0x70/0x70 [ 169.196708] ? evict+0x223/0x280 [ 169.197014] ? __kmalloc+0x33/0x540 [ 169.197305] ? wnd_init+0x15b/0x1b0 [ 169.197599] ntfs_fill_super+0x1026/0x1ba0 [ 169.197994] ? put_ntfs+0x1d0/0x1d0 [ 169.198299] ? vsprintf+0x20/0x20 [ 169.198583] ? mutex_unlock+0x81/0xd0 [ 169.198930] ? set_blocksize+0x95/0x150 [ 169.199269] get_tree_bdev+0x232/0x370 [ 169.199750] ? put_ntfs+0x1d0/0x1d0 [ 169.200094] ntfs_fs_get_tree+0x15/0x20 [ 169.200431] vfs_get_tree+0x4c/0x130 [ 169.200714] path_mount+0x654/0xfe0 [ 169.201067] ? putname+0x80/0xa0 [ 169.201358] ? finish_automount+0x2e0/0x2e0 [ 169.201965] ? putname+0x80/0xa0 [ 169.202445] ? kmem_cache_free+0x1c4/0x440 [ 169.203075] ? putname+0x80/0xa0 [ 169.203414] do_mount+0xd6/0xf0 [ 169.203719] ? path_mount+0xfe0/0xfe0 [ 169.203977] ? __kasan_check_write+0x14/0x20 [ 169.204382] __x64_sys_mount+0xca/0x110 [ 169.204711] do_syscall_64+0x3b/0x90 [ 169.205059] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd [ 169.205571] RIP: 0033:0x7f67a80e948a [ 169.206327] Code: 48 8b 0d 11 fa 2a 00 f7 d8 64 89 01 48 83 c8 ff c3 66 2e 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 0f 1f 44 00 00 49 89 ca b8 a5 00 00 008 [ 169.208296] RSP: 002b:00007ffddf020f58 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 00000000000000a5 [ 169.209253] RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 000055e2547a6060 RCX: 00007f67a80e948a [ 169.209777] RDX: 000055e2547a6260 RSI: 000055e2547a62e0 RDI: 000055e2547aeaf0 [ 169.210342] RBP: 0000000000000000 R08: 000055e2547a6280 R09: 0000000000000020 [ 169.210843] R10: 00000000c0ed0000 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 000055e2547aeaf0 [ 169.211307] R13: 000055e2547a6260 R14: 0000000000000000 R15: 00000000ffffffff [ 169.211913] </TASK> [ 169.212304] [ 169.212680] Allocated by task 0: [ 169.212963] (stack is not available) [ 169.213200] [ 169.213472] The buggy address belongs to the object at ffff8880094b5e00 [ 169.213472] which belongs to the cache UDP of size 1152 [ 169.214095] The buggy address is located 1088 bytes inside of [ 169.214095] 1152-byte region [ffff8880094b5e00, ffff8880094b6280) [ 169.214639] [ 169.215004] The buggy address belongs to the physical page: [ 169.215766] page:000000002e324c8c refcount:1 mapcount:0 mapping:0000000000000000 index:0x0 pfn:0x94b4 [ 169.218412] head:000000002e324c8c order:2 compound_mapcount:0 compound_pincount:0 [ 169.219078] flags: 0xfffffc0010200(slab|head|node=0|zone=1|lastcpupid=0x1fffff) [ 169.220272] raw: 000fffffc0010200 ---truncated---

Weakness: CWE-125

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53486?

It affects 1 product.

Products include Linux kernel.

How do I fix CVE-2023-53486?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. Memory-safe languages, compiler hardening and fuzzing prevent most new cases. More about Memory corruption.

Is CVE-2023-53486 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53486 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Linux kernel vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53486, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53486, GHSA-638r-2hm7-3wj9, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-53486, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53486.