[PATCH] cifs: fix memory leak in smb3_fs_context_parse_param error path

From: ssrane_b23

Date: Tue Nov 18 2025 - 10:12:00 EST


From: Shaurya Rane <ssrane_b23@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>

Add proper cleanup of ctx->source and fc->source to the
cifs_parse_mount_err error handler. This ensures that memory allocated
for the source strings is correctly freed on all error paths, matching
the cleanup already performed in the success path by
smb3_cleanup_fs_context_contents().
Pointers are also set to NULL after freeing to prevent potential
double-free issues.

This change fixes a memory leak originally detected by syzbot. The
leak occurred when processing Opt_source mount options if an error
happened after ctx->source and fc->source were successfully
allocated but before the function completed.

The specific leak sequence was:
1. ctx->source = smb3_fs_context_fullpath(ctx, '/') allocates memory
2. fc->source = kstrdup(ctx->source, GFP_KERNEL) allocates more memory
3. A subsequent error jumps to cifs_parse_mount_err
4. The old error handler freed passwords but not the source strings,
causing the memory to leak.

This issue was not addressed by commit e8c73eb7db0a ("cifs: client:
fix memory leak in smb3_fs_context_parse_param"), which only fixed
leaks from repeated fsconfig() calls but not this error path.

Reported-by: syzbot+87be6809ed9bf6d718e3@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Closes: https://syzkaller.appspot.com/bug?extid=87be6809ed9bf6d718e3
Fixes: 24e0a1eff9e2 ("cifs: switch to new mount api")
Signed-off-by: Shaurya Rane <ssrane_b23@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
---
fs/smb/client/fs_context.c | 6 ++++++
1 file changed, 6 insertions(+)

diff --git a/fs/smb/client/fs_context.c b/fs/smb/client/fs_context.c
index 0f894d09157b..975f1fa153fd 100644
--- a/fs/smb/client/fs_context.c
+++ b/fs/smb/client/fs_context.c
@@ -1834,6 +1834,12 @@ static int smb3_fs_context_parse_param(struct fs_context *fc,
ctx->password = NULL;
kfree_sensitive(ctx->password2);
ctx->password2 = NULL;
+ kfree(ctx->source);
+ ctx->source = NULL;
+ if (fc) {
+ kfree(fc->source);
+ fc->source = NULL;
+ }
return -EINVAL;
}

--
2.34.1