[PATCH] eventfs: Initialize ei->children and ei->list in init_ei()

From: Deepanshu Kartikey

Date: Mon Aug 24 2026 - 10:54:23 EST


eventfs_create_events_dir() allocates the eventfs_inode via
alloc_root_ei(), but only calls INIT_LIST_HEAD() on ei->children
and ei->list after the tracefs_get_inode() check. If that check
fails, the code jumps to the fail label and calls cleanup_ei(),
which calls free_ei():

WARN_ON_ONCE(!list_empty(&ei->children));

Since ei was allocated with kzalloc(), ei->children.next is NULL
at this point, not a self-referencing pointer. list_empty() checks
head->next == head, so it returns false on an uninitialized list
head, triggering a false-positive WARN_ON_ONCE() even though the
list was never used.

eventfs_create_dir() has the same latent issue: alloc_ei() is
called before INIT_LIST_HEAD(), leaving a window where an early
failure path could hit cleanup_ei() on an uninitialized list head.

Move the INIT_LIST_HEAD() calls into init_ei(), which is called
by both alloc_ei() and alloc_root_ei() immediately after
allocation. This guarantees every eventfs_inode has a valid,
self-linked, empty children/list the moment it is allocated,
regardless of which failure path runs afterward.

Fixes: 5790b1fb3d67 ("eventfs: Remove eventfs_file and just use eventfs_inode")
Reported-by: syzbot+3ef80b4ed02226d04a06@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=3ef80b4ed02226d04a06
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Deepanshu Kartikey <kartikey406@xxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/tracefs/event_inode.c | 7 ++-----
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 5 deletions(-)

diff --git a/fs/tracefs/event_inode.c b/fs/tracefs/event_inode.c
index 604ba3e841d2..6e3513b13cfa 100644
--- a/fs/tracefs/event_inode.c
+++ b/fs/tracefs/event_inode.c
@@ -438,6 +438,8 @@ static inline struct eventfs_inode *init_ei(struct eventfs_inode *ei, const char
if (!ei->name)
return NULL;
kref_init(&ei->kref);
+ INIT_LIST_HEAD(&ei->children);
+ INIT_LIST_HEAD(&ei->list);
return ei;
}

@@ -729,8 +731,6 @@ struct eventfs_inode *eventfs_create_dir(const char *name, struct eventfs_inode
ei->entries = entries;
ei->nr_entries = size;
ei->data = data;
- INIT_LIST_HEAD(&ei->children);
- INIT_LIST_HEAD(&ei->list);

scoped_guard(mutex, &eventfs_mutex) {
if (!parent->is_freed)
@@ -802,9 +802,6 @@ struct eventfs_inode *eventfs_create_events_dir(const char *name, struct dentry
ei->attr.uid = uid;
ei->attr.gid = gid;

- INIT_LIST_HEAD(&ei->children);
- INIT_LIST_HEAD(&ei->list);
-
ti = get_tracefs(inode);
ti->flags |= TRACEFS_EVENT_INODE;
ti->private = ei;
--
2.34.1