[PATCH v2] firmware_loader: fix device reference leak in firmware_upload_register()

From: Guangshuo Li

Date: Sat Apr 18 2026 - 03:02:44 EST


firmware_upload_register()
-> fw_create_instance()
-> device_initialize()

After fw_create_instance() succeeds, the lifetime of the embedded struct
device is expected to be managed through the device core reference
counting, since fw_create_instance() has already called
device_initialize().

In firmware_upload_register(), if alloc_lookup_fw_priv() fails after
fw_create_instance() succeeds, the code reaches free_fw_sysfs and frees
fw_sysfs directly instead of releasing the device reference with
put_device(). This may leave the reference count of the embedded struct
device unbalanced, resulting in a refcount leak.

The issue was identified by a static analysis tool I developed and
confirmed by manual review. Fix this by using put_device(fw_dev) in the
failure path and letting fw_dev_release() handle the final cleanup,
instead of freeing the instance directly from the error path.

Fixes: 97730bbb242c ("firmware_loader: Add firmware-upload support")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Guangshuo Li <lgs201920130244@xxxxxxxxx>
---
drivers/base/firmware_loader/sysfs_upload.c | 6 ++----
1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 4 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/base/firmware_loader/sysfs_upload.c b/drivers/base/firmware_loader/sysfs_upload.c
index f59a7856934c..a6dab34b22d8 100644
--- a/drivers/base/firmware_loader/sysfs_upload.c
+++ b/drivers/base/firmware_loader/sysfs_upload.c
@@ -351,7 +351,8 @@ firmware_upload_register(struct module *module, struct device *parent,
if (ret != 0) {
if (ret > 0)
ret = -EINVAL;
- goto free_fw_sysfs;
+ put_device(fw_dev);
+ goto exit_module_put;
}
fw_priv->is_paged_buf = true;
fw_sysfs->fw_priv = fw_priv;
@@ -365,9 +366,6 @@ firmware_upload_register(struct module *module, struct device *parent,

return fw_upload;

-free_fw_sysfs:
- kfree(fw_sysfs);
-
free_fw_upload_priv:
kfree(fw_upload_priv);

--
2.43.0