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🛡️ CVE-2023-54196 — kernel

⚪ Unknown ✅ No Known Exploit NVD
N/A
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

fs/ntfs3: Fix NULL pointer dereference in 'ni_write_inode'

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()'.

Affected software

CVE-2023-54196 is recorded against 2 packages.

  • kernel (from 6.2.0 up to 6.3.4)
  • unknown

Timeline and source

Published on 30 December 2025 and last revised on 12 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from NVD.

References

git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
git.kernel.org (Web)
github.com (Advisory)
nvd.nist.gov (Advisory)
git.kernel.org (Package)

Other advisories for this package

kernel has other advisories on record. If you are patching this one, these are worth checking on the same host:

CVE-2023-54196 on other distributions

Each distribution ships its own build and its own fixed version. Pick the one you run:

Details

Severity Unknown
CVSS Score N/A
CVSS Vector N/A
CWE N/A
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source NVD
Published 2025-12-30
Updated 2026-08-20
Modified 2026-08-12
Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
kernel 6.2.0 6.3.4
unknown — —

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