netdev - Re: [PATCH net] bnxt_en: Fix memory leak in bnxt_alloc

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Message-ID: <20260126100942.GI13967@unreal>
Date: Mon, 26 Jan 2026 12:09:42 +0200
From: Leon Romanovsky <leon@...nel.org>
To: Pavan Chebbi <pavan.chebbi@...adcom.com>
Cc: Zilin Guan <zilin@....edu.cn>, michael.chan@...adcom.com,
	andrew+netdev@...n.ch, davem@...emloft.net, edumazet@...gle.com,
	kuba@...nel.org, pabeni@...hat.com, netdev@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, jianhao.xu@....edu.cn
Subject: Re: [PATCH net] bnxt_en: Fix memory leak in bnxt_alloc_mem()

On Thu, Jan 22, 2026 at 03:14:08PM +0530, Pavan Chebbi wrote:
> On Thu, Jan 22, 2026 at 2:56 PM Zilin Guan <zilin@....edu.cn> wrote:
> >
> > In bnxt_alloc_mem(), the function allocates memory for bp->bnapi,
> > bp->rx_ring, bp->tx_ring, and bp->tx_ring_map.
> >
> > However, if the allocation for rx_ring, tx_ring, or tx_ring_map fails, the
> > function currently returns -ENOMEM directly without freeing the previously
> > allocated memory. This leads to a memory leak.
> >
> > Fix this by jumping to the alloc_mem_err label when allocation fails,
> > which ensures that bnxt_free_mem() is called to properly release all
> > allocated resources.
> 
> This fix is not needed. The memory is freed by the caller of bnxt_alloc_mem().

That is an anti-pattern as well. On error, the function should clean up
all resources it allocated.

Thanks