[for-linus][PATCH 3/7] tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()

[Steven Rostedt]

From: Hui Su <sh_def@xxxxxxx>

event_test_stuff() calls kthread_run() and unconditionally passes the
returned task_struct pointer to kthread_stop(). kthread_run() returns an
error pointer such as ERR_PTR(-ENOMEM) when kthread creation fails, for
example under memory pressure during the boot-time event self-test.
kthread_stop() then dereferences the invalid pointer, crashing the kernel.

Check the result of kthread_run() before passing it to kthread_stop(). Use
WARN_ON() so that a failure to create the self-test thread does not go
unnoticed, matching the ring-buffer self-test fix in commit
91542863abad ("ring-buffer: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()").

Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Fixes: e6187007d6c3 ("tracing/events: add startup tests for events")
Link: https://patch.msgid.link/20260817120642.668375-3-sh_def@xxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Hui Su <sh_def@xxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Steven Rostedt <rostedt@xxxxxxxxxxx>
---
 kernel/trace/trace_events.c | 2 ++
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+)

diff --git a/kernel/trace/trace_events.c b/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
index 9f8f2d02276c..1d39eaf6a0f7 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
@@ -5019,6 +5019,8 @@ static __init void event_test_stuff(void)
 	struct task_struct *test_thread;
 
 	test_thread = kthread_run(event_test_thread, NULL, "test-events");
+	if (WARN_ON(IS_ERR(test_thread)))
+		return;
 	msleep(1);
 	kthread_stop(test_thread);
 }
-- 
2.53.0