[PATCH v3] mfd: sm501: fix reference leak on failed device registration
From: Valery Borovsky
Date: Wed May 06 2026 - 11:47:46 EST
When platform_device_register() fails in sm501_register_device(), the
platform device allocated by sm501_create_subdev() has its struct device
initialized by device_initialize() inside platform_device_register(). The
error path logs the error but returns without dropping the device reference,
leaking the memory allocated by sm501_create_subdev():
sm501_register_device()
-> platform_device_register(pdev)
-> device_initialize(&pdev->dev) /* kref = 1 */
-> platform_device_add(pdev) /* fails */
<- dev_err() called, kref still 1, sm501_device_release never called
The device's release callback (sm501_device_release) calls kfree() on the
containing sm501_device structure. Without platform_device_put(), this
memory is never freed.
Per platform_device_register() kernel-doc:
NOTE: _Never_ directly free @pdev after calling this function, even if
it returned an error! Always use platform_device_put() to give up the
reference initialised in this function instead.
Fix this by calling platform_device_put() in the error branch, which
triggers sm501_device_release() and frees the allocated memory.
Fixes: b6d6454fdb66 ("[PATCH] mfd: SM501 core driver")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Valery Borovsky <vebohr@xxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/mfd/sm501.c | 4 +++-
1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/drivers/mfd/sm501.c b/drivers/mfd/sm501.c
index 0ee6d8940e69..8276456b142f 100644
--- a/drivers/mfd/sm501.c
+++ b/drivers/mfd/sm501.c
@@ -704,9 +704,11 @@ static int sm501_register_device(struct sm501_devdata *sm,
if (ret >= 0) {
dev_dbg(sm->dev, "registered %s\n", pdev->name);
list_add_tail(&smdev->list, &sm->devices);
- } else
+ } else {
dev_err(sm->dev, "error registering %s (%d)\n",
pdev->name, ret);
+ platform_device_put(pdev);
+ }
return ret;
}
--
2.51.0