{"id":"CVE-2023-53149","summary":"ext4: avoid deadlock in fs reclaim with page writeback","details":"In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:\n\next4: avoid deadlock in fs reclaim with page writeback\n\nExt4 has a filesystem wide lock protecting ext4_writepages() calls to\navoid races with switching of journalled data flag or inode format. This\nlock can however cause a deadlock like:\n\nCPU0                            CPU1\n\next4_writepages()\n  percpu_down_read(sbi-\u003es_writepages_rwsem);\n                                ext4_change_inode_journal_flag()\n                                  percpu_down_write(sbi-\u003es_writepages_rwsem);\n                                    - blocks, all readers block from now on\n  ext4_do_writepages()\n    ext4_init_io_end()\n      kmem_cache_zalloc(io_end_cachep, GFP_KERNEL)\n        fs_reclaim frees dentry...\n          dentry_unlink_inode()\n            iput() - last ref =\u003e\n              iput_final() - inode dirty =\u003e\n                write_inode_now()...\n                  ext4_writepages() tries to acquire sbi-\u003es_writepages_rwsem\n                    and blocks forever\n\nMake sure we cannot recurse into filesystem reclaim from writeback code\nto avoid the deadlock.","modified":"2026-05-18T05:56:52.621981959Z","published":"2025-09-15T14:03:13.334Z","related":["SUSE-SU-2025:03614-1","SUSE-SU-2025:03615-1","SUSE-SU-2025:03628-1","SUSE-SU-2025:3716-1","SUSE-SU-2025:3761-1"],"database_specific":{"osv_generated_from":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/53xxx/CVE-2023-53149.json","cna_assigner":"Linux"},"references":[{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/00d873c17e29cc32d90ca852b82685f1673acaa5"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/2ec97dc90df40c50e509809dc9a198638a7e18b6"},{"type":"WEB","url":"https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4b4340bf04ce9a52061f15000ecedd126abc093c"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2023/53xxx/CVE-2023-53149.json"},{"type":"ADVISORY","url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53149"},{"type":"PACKAGE","url":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git"}],"affected":[{"ranges":[{"type":"GIT","repo":"https://git.kernel.org/pub/scm/linux/kernel/git/stable/linux.git","events":[{"introduced":"c8585c6fcaf2011de54c3592e80a634a2b9e1a7f"},{"fixed":"2ec97dc90df40c50e509809dc9a198638a7e18b6"},{"fixed":"4b4340bf04ce9a52061f15000ecedd126abc093c"},{"fixed":"00d873c17e29cc32d90ca852b82685f1673acaa5"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/osv-test-cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2023-53149.json"}},{"package":{"name":"Kernel","ecosystem":"Linux"},"ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"4.7.0"},{"fixed":"6.2.16"}]},{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"6.3.0"},{"fixed":"6.3.3"}]}],"database_specific":{"source":"https://storage.googleapis.com/osv-test-cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2023-53149.json"}}],"schema_version":"1.7.5"}