bcache: Fix __bch_btree_node_alloc to make the failure behavior consistent

published 2025-10-07 13 mo ago modified 2026-10-28 11 d ago also EUVD-2025-31968

cvss: 5.5; version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev: Not listed; not in CISA's catalog
epss: 0.1%; EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 4%
public exploits: 0; none known

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

In some specific situations, the return value of __bch_btree_node_alloc may be NULL. This may lead to a potential NULL pointer dereference in caller function like a calling chain : btree_split->bch_btree_node_alloc->__bch_btree_node_alloc.

Fix it by initializing the return value in __bch_btree_node_alloc.

Patch / fix

fixed in 1 distros 3 links 7

Linux Linux 4.19.291, 5.4.253, 5.10.188, 5.15.121, 6.1.39, 6.4.4, 6.5

debian ubuntu suse

linux Debian 12 6.1.52-1
linux Debian 14, Debian 13 6.4.4-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-53681

linux Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-169.187
linux Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-86.96
linux-aws Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1116.126
linux-aws Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1047.52
linux-gcp Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1120.129
linux-gcp Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1044.52
linux-gke Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 5.15.0-1044.49
linux-ibm Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 5.4.0-1063.68

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-53681

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

kernel-64kb SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1
kernel-syms SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS +1 more 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1
kernel-source SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.5 +2 more 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1
kernel-default SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.5 +3 more 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1
kernel-obs-build SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS +1 more 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1
kernel-default-base SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE Micro 5.5 +2 more 5.14.21-150500.55.127.1.150500.6.61.1
kernel-rt Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.58.1
kernel-syms-rt Real Time Module 15 SP6, openSUSE Leap 15.6 6.4.0-150600.10.58.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2025:4320-1 SUSE-SU-2025:4301-1 SUSE-SU-2025:21052-1 SUSE-SU-2025:21064-1 SUSE-SU-2025:4189-1 SUSE-SU-2025:4149-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2023-53681 updated 2026-11-07

kernel: bcache: Fix __bch_btree_node_alloc to make the failure behavior consistent

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 perf, kernel, python-perf, kernel-kdump, kernel-firmware, kernel-bootwrapper, +1 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, python-perf, kernel-kdump, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 perf, kernel, bpftool, kernel-rt, kernel-core, kernel-tools, +29 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 rv, perf, rtla, kernel, bpftool, libperf, +83 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 kernel
not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

Exploit prediction

0.15% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 4% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by	version	score	vector
NVD	3.1	5.5	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Affected products

Linux Linux

Classification

Weakness

CWE-476 NULL Pointer Dereference

Technology feeds

Linux kernel rss critical rss

References

Sources

CVE List CVE-2023-53681
NVD CVE-2023-53681

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.

Summary