Linux Kernel up to 6.3.1 f2fs f2fs_submit_merged_ipu_write use after free

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.10.179/5.15.110/6.1.27/6.2.14/6.3.1. Affected by this issue is the function f2fs_submit_merged_ipu_write of the component f2fs. The manipulation leads to use after free. This vulnerability is listed as CVE-2023-53537. There is no available exploit. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 5.10.179/5.15.110/6.1.27/6.2.14/6.3.1. This issue affects the function f2fs_submit_merged_ipu_write of the component f2fs. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a use after free vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-416. Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash, use unexpected values, or execute code. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: f2fs: fix to avoid use-after-free for cached IPU bio xfstest generic/019 reports a bug: kernel BUG at mm/filemap.c:1619! RIP: 0010:folio_end_writeback+0x8a/0x90 Call Trace: end_page_writeback+0x1c/0x60 f2fs_write_end_io+0x199/0x420 bio_endio+0x104/0x180 submit_bio_noacct+0xa5/0x510 submit_bio+0x48/0x80 f2fs_submit_write_bio+0x35/0x300 f2fs_submit_merged_ipu_write+0x2a0/0x2b0 f2fs_write_single_data_page+0x838/0x8b0 f2fs_write_cache_pages+0x379/0xa30 f2fs_write_data_pages+0x30c/0x340 do_writepages+0xd8/0x1b0 __writeback_single_inode+0x44/0x370 writeback_sb_inodes+0x233/0x4d0 __writeback_inodes_wb+0x56/0xf0 wb_writeback+0x1dd/0x2d0 wb_workfn+0x367/0x4a0 process_one_work+0x21d/0x430 worker_thread+0x4e/0x3c0 kthread+0x103/0x130 ret_from_fork+0x2c/0x50 The root cause is: after cp_error is set, f2fs_submit_merged_ipu_write() in f2fs_write_single_data_page() tries to flush IPU bio in cache, however f2fs_submit_merged_ipu_write() missed to check validity of @bio parameter, result in submitting random cached bio which belong to other IO context, then it will cause use-after-free issue, fix it by adding additional validity check.

The advisory is shared at git.kernel.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2023-53537 since 10/04/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 03/01/2026).

Upgrading to version 5.10.180, 5.15.111, 6.1.28, 6.2.15 or 6.3.2 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch b2f423fda64fb49213aa0ed5056079cf295a5df2/9a7f63283af6befc0f91d549f4f6917dff7479a9/7d058f0ab161437369ad6e45a4b67c2886e71373/97ec6f1788cc6bee3f8c89cb908e1a2a1cd859bb/af4ce124d7bd74cb839bbdaccffbb416771a56b5/5cdb422c839134273866208dad5360835ddb9794 is able to eliminate this problem. The bugfix is ready for download at git.kernel.org. The best possible mitigation is suggested to be upgrading to the latest version.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at EUVD (EUVD-2023-60071) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2194). If you want to get the best quality for vulnerability data then you always have to consider VulDB.

Affected

• Google Container-Optimized OS
• Debian Linux
• Google Cloud Platform
• Amazon Linux 2
• Red Hat Enterprise Linux
• Ubuntu Linux
• SUSE Linux
• Oracle Linux
• SUSE openSUSE
• Open Source Linux Kernel
• RESF Rocky Linux
• NetApp ActiveIQ Unified Manager
• IBM QRadar SIEM
• Dell NetWorker

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.10.179
• 5.15.110
• 6.1.0
• 6.1.1
• 6.1.2
• 6.1.3
• 6.1.4
• 6.1.5
• 6.1.6
• 6.1.7
• 6.1.8
• 6.1.9
• 6.1.10
• 6.1.11
• 6.1.12
• 6.1.13
• 6.1.14
• 6.1.15
• 6.1.16
• 6.1.17
• 6.1.18
• 6.1.19
• 6.1.20
• 6.1.21
• 6.1.22
• 6.1.23
• 6.1.24
• 6.1.25
• 6.1.26
• 6.1.27
• 6.2.0
• 6.2.1
• 6.2.2
• 6.2.3
• 6.2.4
• 6.2.5
• 6.2.6
• 6.2.7
• 6.2.8
• 6.2.9
• 6.2.10
• 6.2.11
• 6.2.12
• 6.2.13
• 6.2.14
• 6.3.0
• 6.3.1

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

CPE 2.3info

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CPE 2.2info

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Entryinfo

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