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CVE-2023-53101

kernel: ext4: zero i_disksize when initializing the bootloader inode

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Severity

Moderate

Red Hat Product Security

4.4

CVSS 3.1

Review impact separately from score.

Published · May 2, 2025

Updated · June 30, 2026

Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: zero i_disksize when initializing the bootloader inode

If the boot loader inode has never been used before, the EXT4_IOC_SWAP_BOOT inode will initialize it, including setting the i_size to 0. However, if the "never before used" boot loader has a non-zero i_size, then i_disksize will be non-zero, and the inconsistency between i_size and i_disksize can trigger a kernel warning:

WARNING: CPU: 0 PID: 2580 at fs/ext4/file.c:319 CPU: 0 PID: 2580 Comm: bb Not tainted 6.3.0-rc1-00004-g703695902cfa RIP: 0010:ext4_file_write_iter+0xbc7/0xd10 Call Trace: vfs_write+0x3b1/0x5c0 ksys_write+0x77/0x160 __x64_sys_write+0x22/0x30 do_syscall_64+0x39/0x80

Reproducer:

  1. create corrupted image and mount it: mke2fs -t ext4 /tmp/foo.img 200 debugfs -wR "sif <5> size 25700" /tmp/foo.img mount -t ext4 /tmp/foo.img /mnt cd /mnt echo 123 > file
  2. Run the reproducer program: posix_memalign(&buf, 1024, 1024) fd = open("file", O_RDWR | O_DIRECT); ioctl(fd, EXT4_IOC_SWAP_BOOT); write(fd, buf, 1024);

Fix this by setting i_disksize as well as i_size to zero when initiaizing the boot loader inode.

Statement

Issue in EXT4_IOC_SWAP_BOOT where i_disksize may remain inconsistent, causing a kernel warning on crafted ext4 images. Requires root access and manual filesystem manipulation. No security impact in real-world scenarios.

CVSS score applicability

The CVSS score(s) listed for this vulnerability do not reflect the associated product's status, and are included for informational purposes to better understand the severity of this vulnerability.

Mitigation

No mitigation is specified in collected source.

CVSS / CWE

CVSS 3.1 · 4.4
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CWE not specified