# CVE-2023-54317: dm flakey: don't corrupt the zero page

> A flaw in the Linux kernel dm-flakey target corrupts the zero page, causing userspace crashes and denial of service.

- **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:** 30 Dec 2025
- **Updated:** 15 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** BELL-CVE-2023-54317, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-54317, GHSA-8m2v-q2gj-8gq3, UBUNTU-CVE-2023-54317

## What is CVE-2023-54317?

CVE-2023-54317 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 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:

dm flakey: don't corrupt the zero page

When we need to zero some range on a block device, the function
__blkdev_issue_zero_pages submits a write bio with the bio vector pointing
to the zero page. If we use dm-flakey with corrupt bio writes option, it
will corrupt the content of the zero page which results in crashes of
various userspace programs. Glibc assumes that memory returned by mmap is
zeroed and it uses it for calloc implementation; if the newly mapped
memory is not zeroed, calloc will return non-zeroed memory.

Fix this bug by testing if the page is equal to ZERO_PAGE(0) and
avoiding the corruption in this case.

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-54317?


## How do I fix CVE-2023-54317?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2023-54317 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-54317 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2023-54317 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2023-54317 is a high-severity memory corruption vulnerability in Linux, published on 30 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-2023-54317 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-2023-54317/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54317/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2023-54317
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-54317
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2023-54317

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2023-54317/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.