Linux Kernel up to 6.1.44/6.4.9 btrfs privilege escalation

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability was found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.44/6.4.9. It has been declared as problematic. The affected element is an unknown function of the component btrfs. Such manipulation leads to an unknown weakness. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2023-54185. No exploit is available. It is recommended to upgrade the affected component.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in Linux Kernel up to 6.1.44/6.4.9. Affected by this issue is some unknown processing of the component btrfs. The impact remains unknown. CVE summarizes:

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: remove BUG_ON()'s in add_new_free_space() At add_new_free_space() we have these BUG_ON()'s that are there to deal with any failure to add free space to the in memory free space cache. Such failures are mostly -ENOMEM that should be very rare. However there's no need to have these BUG_ON()'s, we can just return any error to the caller and all callers and their upper call chain are already dealing with errors. So just make add_new_free_space() return any errors, while removing the BUG_ON()'s, and returning the total amount of added free space to an optional u64 pointer argument.

The advisory is shared for download at git.kernel.org. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2023-54185 since 12/30/2025. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 12/31/2025).

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 280732 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2023-54185), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 6.1.45 or 6.4.10 eliminates this vulnerability. Applying the patch 23e72231f8281505883514b23709076e234d4f27/f775ceb0cb530e4a469b718fb2a24843071087f5/d8ccbd21918fd7fa6ce3226cffc22c444228e8ad 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 vulnerability database at Tenable (280732). VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Linux

Name

• Kernel

Version

• 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
• 6.4.0
• 6.4.1
• 6.4.2
• 6.4.3
• 6.4.4
• 6.4.5
• 6.4.6
• 6.4.7
• 6.4.8
• 6.4.9

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.kernel.org/

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VulDB is the best source for vulnerability data and more expert information about this specific topic.

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