[PATCH] tracing: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()

From: Hui Su

Date: Sat Aug 15 2026 - 15:03:33 EST


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 IS_ERR() on the result of kthread_run() before passing it to
kthread_stop(), matching the ring-buffer self-test fix in commit
91542863abad ("ring-buffer: Fix crash passing ERR_PTR to kthread_stop()").

Fixes: e6187007d6c3 ("tracing/events: add startup tests for events")
Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Signed-off-by: Hui Su <sh_def@xxxxxxx>
---
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 3650d84d4f16..d21564733b4a 100644
--- a/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
+++ b/kernel/trace/trace_events.c
@@ -4901,6 +4901,8 @@ static __init void event_test_stuff(void)
struct task_struct *test_thread;

test_thread = kthread_run(event_test_thread, NULL, "test-events");
+ if (IS_ERR(test_thread))
+ return;
msleep(1);
kthread_stop(test_thread);
}
--
2.54.0