Coverity spotted what looks like a real possible case of using a variable after it has been freed. The problem is in kernel/relay.c::relay_open_buf()
If the code hits "goto free_buf;" it ends up in this code : free_buf: relay_destroy_buf(buf); <--- calls kfree() on 'buf'. free_name: kfree(tmpname); end: return buf; <-- use after free of 'buf'. I read through the callers and they all handle a NULL return from this function as an error (and hitting the 'free_buf' label only happens on failure to chan->cb->create_buf_file(), so that looks like a clear error to me). The patch simply sets 'buf' to NULL after the call to relay_destroy_buf(buf); - as far as I can see that should take care of the problem. The patch also corrects a reference to a documentation file while I was at it. Note from Mathieu: the documentation reference change should have been done in a separate patch, but I guess no one will really care. Signed-off-by: Jesper Juhl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Acked-by: "David J. Wilder" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Tested-by: "David J. Wilder" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Signed-off-by: Mathieu Desnoyers <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> --- diff --git a/kernel/relay.c b/kernel/relay.c index a615a8f..c55e399 100644 --- a/kernel/relay.c +++ b/kernel/relay.c @@ -1,7 +1,7 @@ /* * Public API and common code for kernel->userspace relay file support. * - * See Documentation/filesystems/relayfs.txt for an overview of relayfs. + * See Documentation/filesystems/relay.txt for an overview. * * Copyright (C) 2002-2005 - Tom Zanussi ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), IBM Corp * Copyright (C) 1999-2005 - Karim Yaghmour ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) @@ -427,6 +427,7 @@ static struct rchan_buf *relay_open_buf(struct rchan *chan, unsigned int cpu) free_buf: relay_destroy_buf(buf); + buf = NULL; free_name: kfree(tmpname); end: -- Mathieu Desnoyers Computer Engineering Ph.D. Student, Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal OpenPGP key fingerprint: 8CD5 52C3 8E3C 4140 715F BA06 3F25 A8FE 3BAE 9A68 - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/