[PATCH 5.10 145/161] driver core: fix potential null-ptr-deref in device_add()

Greg Kroah-Hartman
2026-02-04T14:50:26Z

From: Yang Yingliang <yangyingliang@huawei.com>

[ Upstream commit f6837f34a34973ef6600c08195ed300e24e97317 ]

I got the following null-ptr-deref report while doing fault injection test:

BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000058
CPU: 2 PID: 278 Comm: 37-i2c-ds2482 Tainted: G B W N 6.1.0-rc3+
RIP: 0010:klist_put+0x2d/0xd0
Call Trace:
<TASK>
klist_remove+0xf1/0x1c0
device_release_driver_internal+0x196/0x210
bus_remove_device+0x1bd/0x240
device_add+0xd3d/0x1100
w1_add_master_device+0x476/0x490 [wire]
ds2482_probe+0x303/0x3e0 [ds2482]

This is how it happened:

w1_alloc_dev()
// The dev->driver is set to w1_master_driver.
memcpy(&dev->dev, device, sizeof(struct device));
device_add()
bus_add_device()
dpm_sysfs_add() // It fails, calls bus_remove_device.

// error path
bus_remove_device()
// The dev->driver is not null, but driver is not bound.
__device_release_driver()
klist_remove(&dev->p->knode_driver) <-- It causes null-ptr-deref.

// normal path
bus_probe_device() // It's not called yet.
device_bind_driver()

If dev->driver is set, in the error path after calling bus_add_device()
in device_add(), bus_remove_device() is called, then the device will be
detached from driver. But device_bind_driver() is not called yet, so it
causes null-ptr-deref while access the 'knode_driver'. To fix this, set
dev->driver to null in the error path before calling bus_remove_device().

Fixes: 57eee3d23e88 ("Driver core: Call device_pm_add() after bus_add_device() in device_add()")
Signed-off-by: Yang Yingliang <yangyingliang@huawei.com>
Link: https://lore.kernel.org/r/20221205034904.2077765-1-yangyingliang@huawei.com
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
Signed-off-by: Alva Lan <alvalan9@foxmail.com>
Signed-off-by: Greg Kroah-Hartman <gregkh@linuxfoundation.org>
---
drivers/base/core.c | 1 +
1 file changed, 1 insertion(+)

--- a/drivers/base/core.c
+++ b/drivers/base/core.c
@@ -3036,6 +3036,7 @@ done:
device_pm_remove(dev);
dpm_sysfs_remove(dev);
DPMError:
+ dev->driver = NULL;
bus_remove_device(dev);
BusError:
device_remove_attrs(dev);