CVE-2023-54119 inotify: Avoid reporting event with invalid wd
A race condition in the Linux kernel inotify subsystem allows local attackers to cause denial of service by confusing inotify listeners with invalid watch descriptors.
- 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-2023-54119?
CVE-2023-54119 is a vulnerability in Linux, published on 24 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:
inotify: Avoid reporting event with invalid wd
When inotify_freeing_mark() races with inotify_handle_inode_event() it can happen that inotify_handle_inode_event() sees that i_mark->wd got already reset to -1 and reports this value to userspace which can confuse the inotify listener. Avoid the problem by validating that wd is sensible (and pretend the mark got removed before the event got generated otherwise).
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54119?
How do I fix CVE-2023-54119?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2023-54119 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54119 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2023-54119, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54119, GHSA-wgxf-ch55-cw7h, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54119.