CVE-2023-52737: In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: lock the inode in shared mode before starting fiemap Currently fiemap does not take

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: lock the inode in shared mode before starting fiemap Currently fiemap does not take

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: btrfs: lock the inode in shared mode before starting fiemap Currently fiemap does not take the inode's lock (VFS lock), it only locks a file range in the inode's io tree. This however can lead to a deadlock if we have a concurrent fsync on the file and fiemap code triggers a fault when accessing the user space buffer with fiemap_fill_next_extent(). The deadlock happens on the inode's i_mmap_lock semaphore, which is taken both by fsync and btrfs_page_mkwrite(). This deadlock was recently reported by syzbot and triggers a trace like the following: task:syz-executor361 state:D stack:20264 pid:5668 ppid:5119 flags:0x00004004 Call Trace: <TASK> context_switch kernel/sched/core.c:5293 [inline] __schedule+0x995/0xe20 kernel/sched/core.c:6606 schedule+0xcb/0x190 kernel/sched/core.c:6682 wait_on_state fs/btrfs/extent-io-tree.c:707 [inline] wait_extent_bit+0x577/0x6f0 fs/btrfs/extent-io-tree.c:751 lock_extent+0x1c2/0x280 fs/btrfs/extent-io-tree.c:1742 find_lock_delalloc_range+0x4e6/0x9c0 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:488 writepage_delalloc+0x1ef/0x540 fs/btrfs/extent_io.c:1863 __ext

Description from the National Vulnerability Database, published by 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67

What it means for a small business

Linux is on the computers, phones or browsers your team uses every day. Turn on automatic updates and restart: most of these fixes only take effect after a restart.

How likely is an attack? The Exploit Prediction Scoring System, run by FIRST (the global association of security response teams), puts the odds of this one being exploited in the next 30 days at 0.21%, higher than 11% of CVEs. That’s low, but low isn’t zero, and the odds jump the day someone publishes an exploit. Scored October 31, 2026, updated daily.

Check your own setup

Website check: reads what your site runs from the outside (WordPress version, plugins it can see, old server software) and matches it against this database.
Server check: what your web server says about itself, and whether that version has known flaws.

Sources

Part of the Huttenlocher Technologies vulnerability database, refreshed twice a day from CISA and the NVD. The title, category and plain-language guidance are ours; check the linked record before acting on a detail. This is general guidance, not a review of your systems.

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