CVE-2023-53294

fs/ntfs3: Fix null-ptr-deref on inode->i_op in ntfs_lookup()

Medium · published September 16, 2025

CVSS v3.1
5.5
EPSS
0%
Percentile
3.7
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

fs/ntfs3: Fix null-ptr-deref on inode->i_op in ntfs_lookup()

Syzbot reported a null-ptr-deref bug:

ntfs3: loop0: Different NTFS' sector size (1024) and media sector size

(512)

ntfs3: loop0: Mark volume as dirty due to NTFS errors

general protection fault, probably for non-canonical address

0xdffffc0000000001: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP KASAN

KASAN: null-ptr-deref in range [0x0000000000000008-0x000000000000000f]

RIP: 0010:d_flags_for_inode fs/dcache.c:1980 [inline]

RIP: 0010:__d_add+0x5ce/0x800 fs/dcache.c:2796

Call Trace:

<TASK>

d_splice_alias+0x122/0x3b0 fs/dcache.c:3191

lookup_open fs/namei.c:3391 [inline]

open_last_lookups fs/namei.c:3481 [inline]

path_openat+0x10e6/0x2df0 fs/namei.c:3688

do_filp_open+0x264/0x4f0 fs/namei.c:3718

do_sys_openat2+0x124/0x4e0 fs/open.c:1310

do_sys_open fs/open.c:1326 [inline]

__do_sys_open fs/open.c:1334 [inline]

__se_sys_open fs/open.c:1330 [inline]

__x64_sys_open+0x221/0x270 fs/open.c:1330

do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/common.c:50 [inline]

do_syscall_64+0x3d/0xb0 arch/x86/entry/common.c:80

entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x63/0xcd

If the MFT record of ntfs inode is not a base record, inode->i_op can be

NULL. And a null-ptr-deref may happen:

ntfs_lookup()

dir_search_u() # inode->i_op is set to NULL

d_splice_alias()

__d_add()

d_flags_for_inode() # inode->i_op->get_link null-ptr-deref

Fix this by adding a Check on inode->i_op before calling the

d_splice_alias() function.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
5.5 · MEDIUM
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00148 · 3.7th percentile
Published
2025-09-16T08:11Z
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 16 SEP 08:11Z
    fs/ntfs3: Fix null-ptr-deref on inode->i_op in ntfs_lookup()
    cvelistv5