dbcve.org
Linux KernelOperating system · Linux

CVE-2023-52737

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-05-21
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.1.13 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: lock the inode in shared mode before starting fiemap Currently fiemap does not take the inode's lock (VFS lock), it only locks a file range in the inode's io tree. This however can lead to a deadlock if we have a concurrent fsync on the file and fiemap code triggers a fault when accessing the user space buffer with fiemap_fill_next_extent(). The deadlock happens on the inode's i_mmap_lock semaphore, which is taken both by fsync and btrfs_page_mkwrite(). This deadlock was recently reported by syzbot and triggers a trace like the following: task:syz-executor361 state:D stack:20264 pid:5668 ppid:5119 flags:0x00004004 Call Trace: <TASK> context_switch kernel/sched/core.c:5293 [inline] __schedule+0x995/0xe20 kernel/sched/core.c:6606 schedule+0xcb/0x190 kernel/sched/core.c:6682 wait_on_state fs/btrfs/extent-io-tree.c:707 [inline] wait_extent_bit+0x577/0x6f0 fs/btrfs/extent-io-tree.c:751 lock_extent+0x1c2/0x280 fs/btrfs/extent-io-tree.c:1742 find_lock_delalloc_range+0x4e6/0x9c0 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:488 writepage_delalloc+0x1ef/0x540 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:1863 __extent_writepage+0x736/0x14e0 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:2174 extent_write_cache_pages+0x983/0x1220 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:3091 extent_writepages+0x219/0x540 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:3211 do_writepages+0x3c3/0x680 mm/page-writeback.c:2581 filemap_fdatawrite_wbc+0x11e/0x170 mm/filemap.c:388 __filemap_fdatawrite_range mm/filemap.c:421 [inline] filemap_fdatawrite_range+0x175/0x200 mm/filemap.c:439 btrfs_fdatawrite_range fs/btrfs/file.c:3850 [inline] start_ordered_ops fs/btrfs/file.c:1737 [inline] btrfs_sync_file+0x4ff/0x1190 fs/btrfs/file.c:1839 generic_write_sync include/linux/fs.h:2885 [inline] btrfs_do_write_iter+0xcd3/0x1280 fs/btrfs/file.c:1684 call_write_iter include/linux/fs.h:2189 [inline] new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:491 [inline] vfs_write+0x7dc/0xc50 fs/read_write.c:584 ksys_write+0x177/0x2a0 fs/read_write.c:637 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline] do_syscall_64+0x3d/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd RIP: 0033:0x7f7d4054e9b9 RSP: 002b:00007f7d404fa2f8 EFLAGS: 00000246 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000001 RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 00007f7d405d87a0 RCX: 00007f7d4054e9b9 RDX: 0000000000000090 RSI: 0000000020000000 RDI: 0000000000000006 RBP: 00007f7d405a51d0 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000 R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000246 R12: 61635f65646f6e69 R13: 65646f7475616f6e R14: 7261637369646f6e R15: 00007f7d405d87a8 </TASK> INFO: task syz-executor361:5697 blocked for more than 145 seconds. Not tainted 6.2.0-rc3-syzkaller-00376-g7c6984405241 #0 "echo 0 > /proc/sys/kernel/hung_task_timeout_secs" disables this message. task:syz-executor361 state:D stack:21216 pid:5697 ppid:5119 flags:0x00004004 Call Trace: <TASK> context_switch kernel/sched/core.c:5293 [inline] __schedule+0x995/0xe20 kernel/sched/core.c:6606 schedule+0xcb/0x190 kernel/sched/core.c:6682 rwsem_down_read_slowpath+0x5f9/0x930 kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1095 __down_read_common+0x54/0x2a0 kernel/locking/rwsem.c:1260 btrfs_page_mkwrite+0x417/0xc80 fs/btrfs/inode.c:8526 do_page_mkwrite+0x19e/0x5e0 mm/memory.c:2947 wp_page_shared+0x15e/0x380 mm/memory.c:3295 handle_pte_fault mm/memory.c:4949 [inline] __handle_mm_fault mm/memory.c:5073 [inline] handle_mm_fault+0x1b79/0x26b0 mm/memory.c:5219 do_user_addr_fault+0x69b/0xcb0 arch/x86/mm/fault.c:1428 handle_page_fault arch/x86/mm/fault.c:1519 [inline] exc_page_fault+0x7a/0x110 arch/x86/mm/fault.c:1575 asm_exc_page_fault+0x22/0x30 arch/x86/include/asm/idtentry.h:570 RIP: 0010:copy_user_short_string+0xd/0x40 arch/x86/lib/copy_user_64.S:233 Code: 74 0a 89 (...) RSP: 0018:ffffc9000570f330 EFLAGS: 000502 ---truncated---

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-667

Shared resources are accessed without correct locking, so concurrent operations interleave into inconsistent — and sometimes exploitable — states, or deadlock the service outright. These bugs are subtle and timing-dependent. The fix is correct, consistent locking or atomic operations around every shared resource.

General guidance for the improper locking class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Linux KernelOperating system
Affected:< 6.1.13= 6.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 6.1.13 or later
Fixed in 6.1.13
Vendor patch git.kernel.org →
Recommended fix High confidence

Kernel >= 6.1.13 (for 6.1.x branch) or >= 6.3 (for 6.2.x branch)

  1. 1. Identify the current running kernel version using 'uname -r'
  2. 2. If running kernel version < 6.1.13 on the 6.1.x branch, upgrade to kernel version >= 6.1.13
  3. 3. If running kernel version = 6.2.x, upgrade to kernel version >= 6.3 or the next stable release that includes the fix
  4. 4. For distributions with vendor-provided kernels, apply the vendor's kernel update that includes commit 519b7e13b5ae8dd38da1e52275705343be6bb508
  5. 5. Reboot the system to apply the new kernel
  6. 6. Verify the fix is applied by checking that fiemap now locks the inode in shared mode before proceeding (code inspection of fs/btrfs/file.c can confirm)
Caveat Standard kernel upgrade risks apply - ensure compatibility with local modules and software stack

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2023-52737 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-52737 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data