# CVE-2023-53618: btrfs: reject invalid reloc tree root keys with stack dump

> A local attacker can cause a kernel crash by providing corrupted on-disk data to the btrfs filesystem, 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:** 7 Oct 2025
- **Updated:** 23 May 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-53618, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53618, GHSA-2244-8r8j-955v, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-53618, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53618

## What is CVE-2023-53618?

CVE-2023-53618 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 7 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:

btrfs: reject invalid reloc tree root keys with stack dump

[BUG]
Syzbot reported a crash that an ASSERT() got triggered inside
prepare_to_merge().

That ASSERT() makes sure the reloc tree is properly pointed back by its
subvolume tree.

[CAUSE]
After more debugging output, it turns out we had an invalid reloc tree:

  BTRFS error (device loop1): reloc tree mismatch, root 8 has no reloc root, expect reloc root key (-8, 132, 8) gen 17

Note the above root key is (TREE_RELOC_OBJECTID, ROOT_ITEM,
QUOTA_TREE_OBJECTID), meaning it's a reloc tree for quota tree.

But reloc trees can only exist for subvolumes, as for non-subvolume
trees, we just COW the involved tree block, no need to create a reloc
tree since those tree blocks won't be shared with other trees.

Only subvolumes tree can share tree blocks with other trees (thus they
have BTRFS_ROOT_SHAREABLE flag).

Thus this new debug output proves my previous assumption that corrupted
on-disk data can trigger that ASSERT().

[FIX]
Besides the dedicated fix and the graceful exit, also let tree-checker to
check such root keys, to make sure reloc trees can only exist for subvolumes.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53618?

It affects 1 product.


Products: Linux kernel.

## How do I fix CVE-2023-53618?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-53618 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53618 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-2023-53618 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-53618 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 7 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-2023-53618 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-2023-53618/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53618/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-53618
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53618
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-53618

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-53618/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.