linux-kernel - Re: [PATCH] objtool: Fix memory leak in elf_alloc

lists.openwall.net		lists / announce owl-users owl-dev john-users john-dev passwdqc-users yescrypt popa3d-users / oss-security kernel-hardening musl sabotage tlsify passwords / crypt-dev xvendor / Bugtraq Full-Disclosure linux-kernel linux-netdev linux-ext4 linux-hardening linux-cve-announce PHC
Open Source and information security mailing list archives

Hash Suite: Windows password security audit tool. GUI, reports in PDF.

[<prev] [next>] [<thread-prev] [day] [month] [year] [list]

Message-ID: <20260119123809.GS830755@noisy.programming.kicks-ass.net>
Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2026 13:38:09 +0100
From: Peter Zijlstra <peterz@...radead.org>
To: Weigang He <geoffreyhe2@...il.com>
Cc: Josh Poimboeuf <jpoimboe@...nel.org>, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [PATCH] objtool: Fix memory leak in elf_alloc_reloc() on realloc
 failure

On Sun, Jan 18, 2026 at 06:56:43AM +0000, Weigang He wrote:
> When realloc() fails in elf_alloc_reloc(), the original buffer pointer
> is overwritten with NULL before the failure is detected. This causes
> the original buffer to become unreachable, resulting in a memory leak.
> 
> Fix this by using a temporary variable to hold the realloc() result.
> If realloc() fails, free the original buffer and set d_buf to NULL to
> maintain the expected error state before returning -1.
> 
> This bug is found by my static analysis tool and my code review.

Yeah, except that the moment this error is actually hit, the tool will
exit, freeing all memory.