CVE-2023-53846 f2fs: fix to do sanity check on direct node in truncate_dnode()

What is CVE-2023-53846?

CVE-2023-53846 is a high-severity use after free vulnerability in Linux, published on 9 Dec 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:

f2fs: fix to do sanity check on direct node in truncate_dnode()

syzbot reports below bug:

BUG: KASAN: slab-use-after-free in f2fs_truncate_data_blocks_range+0x122a/0x14c0 fs/f2fs/file.c:574 Read of size 4 at addr ffff88802a25c000 by task syz-executor148/5000

CPU: 1 PID: 5000 Comm: syz-executor148 Not tainted 6.4.0-rc7-syzkaller-00041-ge660abd551f1 #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 05/27/2023 Call Trace: <TASK> __dump_stack lib/dump_stack.c:88 [inline] dump_stack_lvl+0xd9/0x150 lib/dump_stack.c:106 print_address_description.constprop.0+0x2c/0x3c0 mm/kasan/report.c:351 print_report mm/kasan/report.c:462 [inline] kasan_report+0x11c/0x130 mm/kasan/report.c:572 f2fs_truncate_data_blocks_range+0x122a/0x14c0 fs/f2fs/file.c:574 truncate_dnode+0x229/0x2e0 fs/f2fs/node.c:944 f2fs_truncate_inode_blocks+0x64b/0xde0 fs/f2fs/node.c:1154 f2fs_do_truncate_blocks+0x4ac/0xf30 fs/f2fs/file.c:721 f2fs_truncate_blocks+0x7b/0x300 fs/f2fs/file.c:749 f2fs_truncate.part.0+0x4a5/0x630 fs/f2fs/file.c:799 f2fs_truncate include/linux/fs.h:825 [inline] f2fs_setattr+0x1738/0x2090 fs/f2fs/file.c:1006 notify_change+0xb2c/0x1180 fs/attr.c:483 do_truncate+0x143/0x200 fs/open.c:66 handle_truncate fs/namei.c:3295 [inline] do_open fs/namei.c:3640 [inline] path_openat+0x2083/0x2750 fs/namei.c:3791 do_filp_open+0x1ba/0x410 fs/namei.c:3818 do_sys_openat2+0x16d/0x4c0 fs/open.c:1356 do_sys_open fs/open.c:1372 [inline] __do_sys_creat fs/open.c:1448 [inline] __se_sys_creat fs/open.c:1442 [inline] __x64_sys_creat+0xcd/0x120 fs/open.c:1442 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x39/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

The root cause is, inodeA references inodeB via inodeB's ino, once inodeA is truncated, it calls truncate_dnode() to truncate data blocks in inodeB's node page, it traverse mapping data from node->i.i_addr[0] to node->i.i_addr[ADDRS_PER_BLOCK() - 1], result in out-of-boundary access.

This patch fixes to add sanity check on dnode page in truncate_dnode(), so that, it can help to avoid triggering such issue, and once it encounters such issue, it will record newly introduced ERROR_INVALID_NODE_REFERENCE error into superblock, later fsck can detect such issue and try repairing.

Also, it removes f2fs_truncate_data_blocks() for cleanup due to the function has only one caller, and uses f2fs_truncate_data_blocks_range() instead.

Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-53846?

How do I fix CVE-2023-53846?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade to the fixed version. These bugs are found with fuzzing and sanitisers and avoided by memory-safe languages. More about Use after free.

Is CVE-2023-53846 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-53846 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-53846, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53846, GHSA-2r6x-xmcw-65m8, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2023-53846, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2023-53846, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2023-53846 and 1 more.