[PATCH] serial: 8250_fourport: fix reference leak on failed device registration
From: Guangshuo Li
Date: Wed Apr 15 2026 - 14:53:15 EST
When platform_device_register() fails in fourport_init(), the embedded
struct device in fourport_device has already been initialized by
device_initialize(), but the failure path returns the error without
dropping the device reference for the current platform device:
fourport_init()
-> platform_device_register(&fourport_device)
-> device_initialize(&fourport_device.dev)
-> setup_pdev_dma_masks(&fourport_device)
-> platform_device_add(&fourport_device)
This leads to a reference leak when platform_device_register() fails.
Fix this by calling platform_device_put() before returning the error.
The issue was identified by a static analysis tool I developed and
confirmed by manual review.
Fixes: ec9f47cd6a14c ("[PATCH] Serial: Split 8250 port table")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Guangshuo Li <lgs201920130244@xxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_fourport.c | 8 +++++++-
1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/drivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_fourport.c b/drivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_fourport.c
index 3215b9b7afde..a65bc7316655 100644
--- a/drivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_fourport.c
+++ b/drivers/tty/serial/8250/8250_fourport.c
@@ -34,7 +34,13 @@ static struct platform_device fourport_device = {
static int __init fourport_init(void)
{
- return platform_device_register(&fourport_device);
+ int ret;
+
+ ret = platform_device_register(&fourport_device);
+ if (ret)
+ platform_device_put(&fourport_device);
+
+ return ret;
}
module_init(fourport_init);
--
2.43.0