Bug 2363759 (CVE-2023-53101)

Summary: CVE-2023-53101 kernel: ext4: zero i_disksize when initializing the bootloader inode
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
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Priority: medium    
Version: unspecifiedCC: dfreiber, drow, jburrell, vkumar
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OS: Linux   
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-05-02 16:04:38 UTC
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.

Comment 1 Avinash Hanwate 2025-05-05 06:18:59 UTC
Upstream advisory:
https://lore.kernel.org/linux-cve-announce/2025050224-CVE-2023-53101-3002@gregkh/T