CVE-2023-52900

A vulnerability was found in the Linux kernel’s nilfs2 file system where improper sanitization checks can result in a general protection fault caused by how the nilfs_btree_insert() function interprets a return value (-ENOENT) from the __nilfs_btree_get_block() function. This return value is used to indicate that a read was attempted against an invalid virtual block address. However, this return value is the same as the internal code that b-tree lookup routines return to indicate that a block being searched does not exist. When nilfs_btree_insert() receives this code from nilfs_btree_do_lookup(), it misinterprets the check as successful and continues the insert operation using the incomplete lookup path, causing the issue. This vulnerability potentially leads to data corruption or system instability.

Mitigation

Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.