Linux Kernel up to 6.5.2 btrfs btrfs_reloc_clone_csums null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.5.2. This impacts the function btrfs_reloc_clone_csums of the component btrfs. Such manipulation leads to null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is uniquely identified as CVE-2023-54080. No exploit exists. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.5.2 and classified as critical. Affected by this issue is the function btrfs_reloc_clone_csums of the component btrfs. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-476. A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. Impacted is availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: zoned: skip splitting and logical rewriting on pre-alloc write When doing a relocation, there is a chance that at the time of btrfs_reloc_clone_csums(), there is no checksum for the corresponding region. In this case, btrfs_finish_ordered_zoned()'s sum points to an invalid item and so ordered_extent's logical is set to some invalid value. Then, btrfs_lookup_block_group() in btrfs_zone_finish_endio() failed to find a block group and will hit an assert or a null pointer dereference as following. This can be reprodcued by running btrfs/028 several times (e.g, 4 to 16 times) with a null_blk setup. The device's zone size and capacity is set to 32 MB and the storage size is set to 5 GB on my setup. KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000088-0x000000000000008f] CPU: 6 PID: 3105720 Comm: kworker/u16:13 Tainted: G W 6.5.0-rc6-kts+ #1 Hardware name: Supermicro Super Server/X10SRL-F, BIOS 2.0 12/17/2015 Workqueue: btrfs-endio-write btrfs_work_helper [btrfs] RIP: 0010:btrfs_zone_finish_endio.part.0+0x34/0x160 [btrfs] Code: 41 54 49 89 fc 55 48 89 f5 53 e8 57 7d fc ff 48 8d b8 88 00 00 00 48 89 c3 48 b8 00 00 00 00 00 > 3c 02 00 0f 85 02 01 00 00 f6 83 88 00 00 00 01 0f 84 a8 00 00 RSP: 0018:ffff88833cf87b08 EFLAGS: 00010206 RAX: dffffc0000000000 RBX: 0000000000000000 RCX: 0000000000000000 RDX: 0000000000000011 RSI: 0000000000000004 RDI: 0000000000000088 RBP: 0000000000000002 R08: 0000000000000001 R09: ffffed102877b827 R10: ffff888143bdc13b R11: ffff888125b1cbc0 R12: ffff888143bdc000 R13: 0000000000007000 R14: ffff888125b1cba8 R15: 0000000000000000 FS: 0000000000000000(0000) GS:ffff88881e500000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000 CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033 CR2: 00007f3ed85223d5 CR3: 00000001519b4005 CR4: 00000000001706e0 Call Trace: <TASK> ? die_addr+0x3c/0xa0 ? exc_general_protection+0x148/0x220 ? asm_exc_general_protection+0x22/0x30 ? btrfs_zone_finish_endio.part.0+0x34/0x160 [btrfs] ? btrfs_zone_finish_endio.part.0+0x19/0x160 [btrfs] btrfs_finish_one_ordered+0x7b8/0x1de0 [btrfs] ? rcu_is_watching+0x11/0xb0 ? lock_release+0x47a/0x620 ? btrfs_finish_ordered_zoned+0x59b/0x800 [btrfs] ? __pfx_btrfs_finish_one_ordered+0x10/0x10 [btrfs] ? btrfs_finish_ordered_zoned+0x358/0x800 [btrfs] ? __smp_call_single_queue+0x124/0x350 ? rcu_is_watching+0x11/0xb0 btrfs_work_helper+0x19f/0xc60 [btrfs] ? __pfx_try_to_wake_up+0x10/0x10 ? _raw_spin_unlock_irq+0x24/0x50 ? rcu_is_watching+0x11/0xb0 process_one_work+0x8c1/0x1430 ? __pfx_lock_acquire+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx_process_one_work+0x10/0x10 ? __pfx_do_raw_spin_lock+0x10/0x10 ? _raw_spin_lock_irq+0x52/0x60 worker_thread+0x100/0x12c0 ? __kthread_parkme+0xc1/0x1f0 ? __pfx_worker_thread+0x10/0x10 kthread+0x2ea/0x3c0 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork+0x30/0x70 ? __pfx_kthread+0x10/0x10 ret_from_fork_asm+0x1b/0x30 </TASK> On the zoned mode, writing to pre-allocated region means data relocation write. Such write always uses WRITE command so there is no need of splitting and rewriting logical address. Thus, we can just skip the function for the case.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2023-54080 since 12/24/2025. The exploitation is known to be difficult. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 280060 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-54080), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.5.3 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch d3cfa44164688a076e8b476cafb5df87d07cfa63/c02d35d89b317994bd713ba82e160c5e7f22d9c8 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 Tenable (280060) and CERT Bund (WID-SEC-2025-2929). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Affected

• Open Source Linux Kernel

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 6.5.0
• 6.5.1
• 6.5.2

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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Entryinfo

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