[PATCH] audit: Use kzalloc instead of kmalloc/memset

[PATCH] audit: Use kzalloc instead of kmalloc/memset

[Gongwei Li]

From: Gongwei Li <ligongwei@kylinos.cn>

Replace kmalloc+memset by kzalloc
for better readability and simplicity.

This addresses the warning below:

WARNING: kzalloc should be used for data, instead of kmalloc/memset

Signed-off-by: Gongwei Li <ligongwei@kylinos.cn>
---
 kernel/auditfilter.c | 3 +--
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/kernel/auditfilter.c b/kernel/auditfilter.c
index f7708fe2c..db014d724 100644
--- a/kernel/auditfilter.c
+++ b/kernel/auditfilter.c
@@ -638,10 +638,9 @@ static struct audit_rule_data *audit_krule_to_data(struct audit_krule *krule)
 	void *bufp;
 	int i;
 
-	data = kmalloc(struct_size(data, buf, krule->buflen), GFP_KERNEL);
+	data = kzalloc(struct_size(data, buf, krule->buflen), GFP_KERNEL);
 	if (unlikely(!data))
 		return NULL;
-	memset(data, 0, sizeof(*data));
 
 	data->flags = krule->flags | krule->listnr;
 	data->action = krule->action;
-- 
2.25.1

Re: [PATCH] audit: Use kzalloc instead of kmalloc/memset

[Paul Moore]

On Nov  5, 2025 Gongwei Li <13875017792@163.com> wrote:
> 
> Replace kmalloc+memset by kzalloc
> for better readability and simplicity.
> 
> This addresses the warning below:
> 
> WARNING: kzalloc should be used for data, instead of kmalloc/memset
> 
> Signed-off-by: Gongwei Li <ligongwei@kylinos.cn>
> ---
>  kernel/auditfilter.c | 3 +--
>  1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 2 deletions(-)

This change does result in zero'ing out the trailing string buffer,
which isn't done currently, and shouldn't be necessary, but as this bit
of code isn't performance critical, it should be okay.

Merged into audit/dev, thanks.

--
paul-moore.com