---
id: CVE-2023-53473
title: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  ext4: improve error handling from ext4_dirhash()

  The ext4_dirhash() will *almost* never fail, especially when the hash
  tree feature was first introduced
summary: |-
  In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

  ext4: improve error handling from ext4_dirhash()

  The ext4_dirhash() will *almost* never fail, especially when the hash
  tree feature was first introduced.  However, wit…
severity: high
cvss: 7.8
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'
vendor: linux
product: linux_kernel
affected:
  - 'linux_kernel >= 5.2, < 5.15.112'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.29'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.2.16'
  - 'linux_kernel >= 6.3, < 6.3.3'
  - linux_kernel = 6.4
patched:
  - linux_kernel 6.3.3
published: '2025-10-01'
updated: '2026-10-15'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-15T22:17:39.960'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2023-53473'
references:
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4b3cb1d108bfc2aebb0d7c8a52261a53cf7f5786'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/70d579aefa652a06af97e013e3fbbabbe5a43553'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b2531936118deb3f479c4fa1bcd787b74b8faa6a'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/c1fae027da61fe8e7eb99f7244297e81bc0f1e43'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
  - url: 'https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/f68876aeef96ef8b708ab10b9cb47ce0a5adb424'
    label: 416baaa9-dc9f-4396-8d5f-8c081fb06d67
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
epss: 0.00168
epssPercentile: 0.05956
ssvc:
  exploitation: none
  automatable: 'no'
  technicalImpact: total
  timestamp: '2026-10-15T21:34:36.698376Z'
ingestedAt: '2026-10-15T22:48:25.402Z'
---

## Overview

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

ext4: improve error handling from ext4_dirhash()

The ext4_dirhash() will *almost* never fail, especially when the hash
tree feature was first introduced.  However, with the addition of
support of encrypted, casefolded file names, that function can most
certainly fail today.

So make sure the callers of ext4_dirhash() properly check for
failures, and reflect the errors back up to their callers.

## Affected

- `linux_kernel >= 5.2, < 5.15.112`
- `linux_kernel >= 5.16, < 6.1.29`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.2, < 6.2.16`
- `linux_kernel >= 6.3, < 6.3.3`
- `linux_kernel = 6.4`

## Remediation

Upgrade past the affected range:

- `linux_kernel 6.3.3`