Linux Kernel up to 5.15.112/6.1.80/6.3.3 ntfs3 null pointer dereference

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability described as critical has been identified in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.112/6.1.80/6.3.3. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown functionality of the component ntfs3. The manipulation results in null pointer dereference. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2023-54196. No exploit is available. Upgrading the affected component is recommended.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 5.15.112/6.1.80/6.3.3. It has been classified as critical. Affected is an unknown code block of the component ntfs3. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a null pointer dereference vulnerability. CWE is classifying the issue as 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. This is going to have an impact on availability. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs/ntfs3: Fix NULL pointer dereference in 'ni_write_inode' Syzbot found the following issue: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 0000000000000016 Mem abort info: ESR = 0x0000000096000006 EC = 0x25: DABT (current EL), IL = 32 bits SET = 0, FnV = 0 EA = 0, S1PTW = 0 FSC = 0x06: level 2 translation fault Data abort info: ISV = 0, ISS = 0x00000006 CM = 0, WnR = 0 user pgtable: 4k pages, 48-bit VAs, pgdp=000000010af56000 [0000000000000016] pgd=08000001090da003, p4d=08000001090da003, pud=08000001090ce003, pmd=0000000000000000 Internal error: Oops: 0000000096000006 [#1] PREEMPT SMP Modules linked in: CPU: 1 PID: 3036 Comm: syz-executor206 Not tainted 6.0.0-rc6-syzkaller-17739-g16c9f284e746 #0 Hardware name: Google Google Compute Engine/Google Compute Engine, BIOS Google 08/26/2022 pstate: 80400005 (Nzcv daif +PAN -UAO -TCO -DIT -SSBS BTYPE=--) pc : is_rec_inuse fs/ntfs3/ntfs.h:313 [inline] pc : ni_write_inode+0xac/0x798 fs/ntfs3/frecord.c:3232 lr : ni_write_inode+0xa0/0x798 fs/ntfs3/frecord.c:3226 sp : ffff8000126c3800 x29: ffff8000126c3860 x28: 0000000000000000 x27: ffff0000c8b02000 x26: ffff0000c7502320 x25: ffff0000c7502288 x24: 0000000000000000 x23: ffff80000cbec91c x22: ffff0000c8b03000 x21: ffff0000c8b02000 x20: 0000000000000001 x19: ffff0000c75024d8 x18: 00000000000000c0 x17: ffff80000dd1b198 x16: ffff80000db59158 x15: ffff0000c4b6b500 x14: 00000000000000b8 x13: 0000000000000000 x12: ffff0000c4b6b500 x11: ff80800008be1b60 x10: 0000000000000000 x9 : ffff0000c4b6b500 x8 : 0000000000000000 x7 : ffff800008be1b50 x6 : 0000000000000000 x5 : 0000000000000000 x4 : 0000000000000001 x3 : 0000000000000000 x2 : 0000000000000008 x1 : 0000000000000001 x0 : 0000000000000000 Call trace: is_rec_inuse fs/ntfs3/ntfs.h:313 [inline] ni_write_inode+0xac/0x798 fs/ntfs3/frecord.c:3232 ntfs_evict_inode+0x54/0x84 fs/ntfs3/inode.c:1744 evict+0xec/0x334 fs/inode.c:665 iput_final fs/inode.c:1748 [inline] iput+0x2c4/0x324 fs/inode.c:1774 ntfs_new_inode+0x7c/0xe0 fs/ntfs3/fsntfs.c:1660 ntfs_create_inode+0x20c/0xe78 fs/ntfs3/inode.c:1278 ntfs_create+0x54/0x74 fs/ntfs3/namei.c:100 lookup_open fs/namei.c:3413 [inline] open_last_lookups fs/namei.c:3481 [inline] path_openat+0x804/0x11c4 fs/namei.c:3688 do_filp_open+0xdc/0x1b8 fs/namei.c:3718 do_sys_openat2+0xb8/0x22c fs/open.c:1311 do_sys_open fs/open.c:1327 [inline] __do_sys_openat fs/open.c:1343 [inline] __se_sys_openat fs/open.c:1338 [inline] __arm64_sys_openat+0xb0/0xe0 fs/open.c:1338 __invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:38 [inline] invoke_syscall arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:52 [inline] el0_svc_common+0x138/0x220 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:142 do_el0_svc+0x48/0x164 arch/arm64/kernel/syscall.c:206 el0_svc+0x58/0x150 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:636 el0t_64_sync_handler+0x84/0xf0 arch/arm64/kernel/entry-common.c:654 el0t_64_sync+0x18c/0x190 Code: 97dafee4 340001b4 f9401328 2a1f03e0 (79402d14) ---[ end trace 0000000000000000 ]--- Above issue may happens as follows: ntfs_new_inode mi_init mi->mrec = kmalloc(sbi->record_size, GFP_NOFS); -->failed to allocate memory if (!mi->mrec) return -ENOMEM; iput iput_final evict ntfs_evict_inode ni_write_inode is_rec_inuse(ni->mi.mrec)-> As 'ni->mi.mrec' is NULL trigger NULL-ptr-deref To solve above issue if new inode failed make inode bad before call 'iput()' in 'ntfs_new_inode()'.

The advisory is available at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is traded as CVE-2023-54196 since 12/30/2025. The exploitability is told to be difficult. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not available.

Upgrading to version 5.15.113, 6.1.81 or 6.3.4 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 6d3d3283e6b4fb3f3ee05dac30ee1461930b8103/329fc4d3f73d865b25f2ee4eafafb040ace37ad5/1c5cffe0d662fb2de7b63176c2582abb69b5f538/db2a3cc6a3481076da6344cc62a80a4e2525f36f 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.

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 5.15.112
• 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
• 6.1.28
• 6.1.29
• 6.1.30
• 6.1.31
• 6.1.32
• 6.1.33
• 6.1.34
• 6.1.35
• 6.1.36
• 6.1.37
• 6.1.38
• 6.1.39
• 6.1.40
• 6.1.41
• 6.1.42
• 6.1.43
• 6.1.44
• 6.1.45
• 6.1.46
• 6.1.47
• 6.1.48
• 6.1.49
• 6.1.50
• 6.1.51
• 6.1.52
• 6.1.53
• 6.1.54
• 6.1.55
• 6.1.56
• 6.1.57
• 6.1.58
• 6.1.59
• 6.1.60
• 6.1.61
• 6.1.62
• 6.1.63
• 6.1.64
• 6.1.65
• 6.1.66
• 6.1.67
• 6.1.68
• 6.1.69
• 6.1.70
• 6.1.71
• 6.1.72
• 6.1.73
• 6.1.74
• 6.1.75
• 6.1.76
• 6.1.77
• 6.1.78
• 6.1.79
• 6.1.80
• 6.3.0
• 6.3.1
• 6.3.2
• 6.3.3

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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