[PATCH] lib: gui: png_pico: fix use-after-free and double-free in png_open

Johannes Schneider johannes.schneider at leica-geosystems.com
Mon Jun 1 19:24:09 PDT 2026


From: Thomas Haemmerle <thomas.haemmerle at leica-geosystems.com>

png_alloc_free_all() frees all picopng-internal allocations, including
the image->data buffer.  The previous code stored a pointer to this
buffer in img->data and called png_alloc_free_all() — leaving img->data
as a dangling pointer.  The subsequent png_close()'s free(img->data)
then performed a double-free on already-freed memory, causing a crash or
heap corruption when displaying the boot logo.

Fix by copying the decoded pixel data into a fresh malloc buffer before
calling png_alloc_free_all().  png_close() correctly frees this copy.

Assisted-by: Claude:claude-sonnet-4-6
Signed-of-by: Thomas Haemmerle <thomas.haemmerle at leica-geosystems.com>
---
 lib/gui/png_pico.c | 21 +++++++++++++++++++--
 1 file changed, 19 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-)

diff --git a/lib/gui/png_pico.c b/lib/gui/png_pico.c
index 029fee2a40..8d70521b46 100644
--- a/lib/gui/png_pico.c
+++ b/lib/gui/png_pico.c
@@ -46,6 +46,8 @@ struct image *png_open(char *inbuf, int insize)
 {
 	PNG_info_t *png_info;
 	int ret;
+	size_t imgsize;
+	void *imgcopy;
 	struct image *img = calloc(1, sizeof(struct image));
 
 	if (!img)
@@ -67,12 +69,27 @@ struct image *png_open(char *inbuf, int insize)
 	img->width = png_info->width;
 	img->height = png_info->height;
 	img->bits_per_pixel = 4 << 3;
-	img->data = png_info->image->data;
 
-	pr_debug("png: %d x %d data at 0x%p\n", img->width, img->height, img->data);
+	/*
+	 * Copy decoded pixels to a stable buffer before png_alloc_free_all()
+	 * frees the picopng internal allocations (including image->data).
+	 * Without this copy, img->data would be a dangling pointer and
+	 * png_close()'s free(img->data) would be a double-free.
+	 */
+	imgsize = png_info->width * png_info->height * 4;
+	imgcopy = malloc(imgsize);
+	if (!imgcopy) {
+		ret = -ENOMEM;
+		goto err;
+	}
+	memcpy(imgcopy, png_info->image->data, imgsize);
 
 	png_alloc_free_all();
 
+	img->data = imgcopy;
+
+	pr_debug("png: %d x %d data at 0x%p\n", img->width, img->height, img->data);
+
 	return img;
 err:
 	png_alloc_free_all();
-- 
2.43.0




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