# CVE-2023-54130: hfs/hfsplus: avoid WARN_ON() for sanity check, use proper error handling

> A corrupted HFS image triggers a kernel warning, potentially causing a denial of service; attackers can crash the system by mounting malicious filesystems.

- **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:** 24 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 5 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-54130, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54130, GHSA-2f2v-fxm5-25rj, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54130

## What is CVE-2023-54130?

CVE-2023-54130 is a high-severity denial of service 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:

hfs/hfsplus: avoid WARN_ON() for sanity check, use proper error handling

Commit 55d1cbbbb29e ("hfs/hfsplus: use WARN_ON for sanity check") fixed
a build warning by turning a comment into a WARN_ON(), but it turns out
that syzbot then complains because it can trigger said warning with a
corrupted hfs image.

The warning actually does warn about a bad situation, but we are much
better off just handling it as the error it is.  So rather than warn
about us doing bad things, stop doing the bad things and return -EIO.

While at it, also fix a memory leak that was introduced by an earlier
fix for a similar syzbot warning situation, and add a check for one case
that historically wasn't handled at all (ie neither comment nor
subsequent WARN_ON).

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54130?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-54130?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-54130 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54130 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-54130 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-54130 is a high-severity denial of service 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54130 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Linux. 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-2023-54130/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54130/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-54130
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-54130
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-54130

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54130/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.