NULL pointer dereference in Linux

CVE-2023-53091

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext4: update s_journal_inum if it changes after journal replay When mounting a crafted ext4 image, s_journal_inum may change after journal replay, which is obviously unreasonable because we have successfully loaded and replayed the journal through the old s_journal_inum. And the new s_journal_inum bypasses some of the checks in ext4_get_journal(), which may trigger a null pointer dereference problem. So if s_journal_inum changes after the journal replay, we ignore the change, and rewrite the current journal_inum to the superblock.

Published · last modified .

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 5.5 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.002 (10.8th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 11th percentile — 10.8% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2023-53091: held from 0.002 to 0.002.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.002 · change: +0.000

Affected products

  • Linux — versions 795762468125a6412c089651e74f780bee154118, a9855260fe8d8680bf8c4f0d8303b696c861e99b, 7eff961ca9f364be255d279346517ba0158ec8e3
  • Linux Kernel

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2023-53091?
CVE-2023-53091 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux, classified under NULL Pointer Dereference. CVSS score: 5.5/10. Published 2025-05-02.
How severe is CVE-2023-53091?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.5 out of 10.