Re: [PATCH net] net: mvpp2: debugfs: fix memory leak when using debugfs_lookup()

[Greg Kroah-Hartman]

On Tue, Sep 13, 2022 at 05:55:52PM +0100, Russell King (Oracle) wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 02, 2022 at 03:41:11PM +0200, Greg Kroah-Hartman wrote:
> > When calling debugfs_lookup() the result must have dput() called on it,
> > otherwise the memory will leak over time.  Fix this up to be much
> > simpler logic and only create the root debugfs directory once when the
> > driver is first accessed.  That resolves the memory leak and makes
> > things more obvious as to what the intent is.
> 
> To clarify a bit more on the original patch rather than one of the
> backported stable patches of this.
> 
> This patch introduces a bug, whereby if the driver is a module, and
> is inserted, binds to a device, then is removed and re-inserted,
> mvpp2_root will be NULL on the first call to mvpp2_dbgfs_init(),
> so we will attempt to call debugfs_create_dir(). However, the
> directory was already previously created, so this will fail, and
> mvpp2_root will be the EEXIST error pointer.
> 
> Since we never clean up this directory, the original code does NOT
> result in a memory leak - since the increase in refcount caused by
> debugfs_lookup() has absolutely no effect - because we never remove
> this directory once it's been created.
> 
> If the driver /did/ remove the directory when the module is removed,
> then yes, maybe there's an argument for this fix. However, as things
> currently stand, this is in no way a fix, but actually introduces a
> debugfs regression.
> 
> Please can the change be reverted in mainline and all stable trees.

I never considered the 'rmmod the driver and then load it again' as a
valid thing to worry about.  And I doubt that many others would either :)

Given that the current code does NOT clean up when it is removed, I
assumed that no one cared abou this, but yes, it is crazy but the
current code does work, but it leaks a dentry.  I'll send a follow-on
patch to do this "correctly" when I return from the Plumbers conference
next week.

But for now, this patch is correct, and does not leak memory anymore
like the code without this change currently does, so I think it should
stay.

thanks,

greg k-h