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

> 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.

- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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:** 1 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **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

## 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 (Out-of-bounds Read)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53486?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53486?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53486 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53486 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-2023-53486 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53486 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-2023-53486/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53486/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53486
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53486
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53486

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53486/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.