Re: [PATCH] hwmon: (w83793) release probe data through kref

[Guenter Roeck]

On Mon, Sep 14, 2026 at 03:36:38PM +0800, Guangshuo Li wrote:
> w83793_probe() initializes data->kref to manage the lifetime of the
> driver data. The normal remove path drops the driver-owned reference
> with kref_put(), while watchdog users take and release additional
> references through the same kref.
> 
> However, the probe error path still frees data directly with kfree().
> This bypasses the kref-managed lifetime and discards the initial
> reference without a matching kref_put(), leaving the reference
> accounting unbalanced.
> 
> Drop the probe-owned reference with kref_put() instead and let
> w83793_release_resources() perform the final free, matching the normal
> remove path.
> 
> This issue was found by manual code inspection.
> 
> Fixes: 5852f9609d21 ("hwmon: (w83793) Add watchdog functionality")
> Cc: stable@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
> Signed-off-by: Guangshuo Li <lgs201920130244@xxxxxxxxx>

Applied.

Thanks,
Guenter