CVE-2023-54032
- Published: 2025-12-24T11:15:56.193
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
btrfs: fix race when deleting quota root from the dirty cow roots list
When disabling quotas we are deleting the quota root from the list
fs_info->dirty_cowonly_roots without taking the lock that protects it,
which is struct btrfs_fs_info::trans_lock. This unsynchronized list
manipulation may cause chaos if there’s another concurrent manipulation
of this list, such as when adding a root to it with
ctree.c:add_root_to_dirty_list().
This can result in all sorts of weird failures caused by a race, such as
the following crash:
[337571.278245] general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address 0xdead000000000108: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI
[337571.278933] CPU: 1 PID: 115447 Comm: btrfs Tainted: G W 6.4.0-rc6-btrfs-next-134+ #1
[337571.279153] Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (i440FX + PIIX, 1996), BIOS rel-1.14.0-0-g155821a1990b-prebuilt.qemu.org 04/01/2014
[337571.279572] RIP: 0010:commit_cowonly_roots+0x11f/0x250 [btrfs]
[337571.279928] Code: 85 38 06 00 (…)
[337571.280363] RSP: 0018:ffff9f63446efba0 EFLAGS: 00010206
[337571.280582] RAX: ffff942d98ec2638 RBX: ffff9430b82b4c30 RCX: 0000000449e1c000
[337571.280798] RDX: dead000000000100 RSI: ffff9430021e4900 RDI: 0000000000036070
[337571.281015] RBP: ffff942d98ec2000 R08: ffff942d98ec2000 R09: 000000000000015b
[337571.281254] R10: 0000000000000009 R11: 0000000000000001 R12: ffff942fe8fbf600
[337571.281476] R13: ffff942dabe23040 R14: ffff942dabe20800 R15: ffff942d92cf3b48
[337571.281723] FS: 00007f478adb7340(0000) GS:ffff94349fa40000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
[337571.281950] CS: 0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
[337571.282184] CR2: 00007f478ab9a3d5 CR3: 000000001e02c001 CR4: 0000000000370ee0
[337571.282416] DR0: 0000000000000000 DR1: 0000000000000000 DR2: 0000000000000000
[337571.282647] DR3: 0000000000000000 DR6: 00000000fffe0ff0 DR7: 0000000000000400
[337571.282874] Call Trace:
[337571.283101]
[337571.283327] ? __die_body+0x1b/0x60
[337571.283570] ? die_addr+0x39/0x60
[337571.283796] ? exc_general_protection+0x22e/0x430
[337571.284022] ? asm_exc_general_protection+0x22/0x30
[337571.284251] ? commit_cowonly_roots+0x11f/0x250 [btrfs]
[337571.284531] btrfs_commit_transaction+0x42e/0xf90 [btrfs]
[337571.284803] ? _raw_spin_unlock+0x15/0x30
[337571.285031] ? release_extent_buffer+0x103/0x130 [btrfs]
[337571.285305] reset_balance_state+0x152/0x1b0 [btrfs]
[337571.285578] btrfs_balance+0xa50/0x11e0 [btrfs]
[337571.285864] ? __kmem_cache_alloc_node+0x14a/0x410
[337571.286086] btrfs_ioctl+0x249a/0x3320 [btrfs]
[337571.286358] ? mod_objcg_state+0xd2/0x360
[337571.286577] ? refill_obj_stock+0xb0/0x160
[337571.286798] ? seq_release+0x25/0x30
[337571.287016] ? __rseq_handle_notify_resume+0x3ba/0x4b0
[337571.287235] ? percpu_counter_add_batch+0x2e/0xa0
[337571.287455] ? __x64_sys_ioctl+0x88/0xc0
[337571.287675] __x64_sys_ioctl+0x88/0xc0
[337571.287901] do_syscall_64+0x38/0x90
[337571.288126] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc
[337571.288352] RIP: 0033:0x7f478aaffe9b
So fix this by locking struct btrfs_fs_info::trans_lock before deleting
the quota root from that list.
Related CVE by CWE
No related CWE found.
Top CVE for Vendor
No vendor taxonomy on this entry.
Recently Exploited Similar Vulnerabilities
No recent KEV-listed items for this vendor/product.
How to fix CVE-2023-54032
Description: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: fix race when deleting quota root from the dirty cow roots list When disabling quotas we are deleting the quota root from the list fs_info->dirty_cowonly_roots without taking the lock that protects it, which is struct btrfs_fs_info::trans_lock. This unsynchronized list manipulation may cause chaos if […]
Exploit Difficulty: HARD
⏱️ Time to exploit: > 4 hours
🛠️ Required skills: Advanced security expertise
💰 Public exploits: Rare or not public
How to Fix:
- Check if you're running the affected product
- Update to the latest patched version
- If patching is not immediately possible: restrict network exposure, apply least-privilege access
- Test the fix in a staging environment first
- Review logs for signs of exploitation
- Monitor for IOCs (Indicators of Compromise)
- Enable automatic security updates
- Set up vulnerability monitoring
- Review and harden security configurations
Exploit Difficulty Assessment
Vulnerability Timeline
CVE details first published to NVD database
Added to this CVE tracking system
Detection Rules & IOCs
No specific detection rules generated for this vulnerability type.
No vendor/product data available.