Bug 2400765 (CVE-2023-53503) - CVE-2023-53503 kernel: ext4: allow ext4_get_group_info() to fail
Summary: CVE-2023-53503 kernel: ext4: allow ext4_get_group_info() to fail
Keywords:
Status: NEW
Alias: CVE-2023-53503
Product: Security Response
Classification: Other
Component: vulnerability
Version: unspecified
Hardware: All
OS: Linux
medium
medium
Target Milestone: ---
Assignee: Product Security DevOps Team
QA Contact:
URL:
Whiteboard:
Depends On:
Blocks:
TreeView+ depends on / blocked
 
Reported: 2025-10-01 12:06 UTC by OSIDB Bzimport
Modified: 2025-10-06 16:18 UTC (History)
0 users

Fixed In Version:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2025-10-01 12:06:11 UTC
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: allow ext4_get_group_info() to fail

Previously, ext4_get_group_info() would treat an invalid group number
as BUG(), since in theory it should never happen.  However, if a
malicious attaker (or fuzzer) modifies the superblock via the block
device while it is the file system is mounted, it is possible for
s_first_data_block to get set to a very large number.  In that case,
when calculating the block group of some block number (such as the
starting block of a preallocation region), could result in an
underflow and very large block group number.  Then the BUG_ON check in
ext4_get_group_info() would fire, resutling in a denial of service
attack that can be triggered by root or someone with write access to
the block device.

For a quality of implementation perspective, it's best that even if
the system administrator does something that they shouldn't, that it
will not trigger a BUG.  So instead of BUG'ing, ext4_get_group_info()
will call ext4_error and return NULL.  We also add fallback code in
all of the callers of ext4_get_group_info() that it might NULL.

Also, since ext4_get_group_info() was already borderline to be an
inline function, un-inline it.  The results in a next reduction of the
compiled text size of ext4 by roughly 2k.


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