[PATCH 1/1] char: Use list_del_init() in misc_deregister() to reinitialize list pointer

xion.wang at mediatek.com xion.wang at mediatek.com
Wed Sep 3 23:37:04 PDT 2025


From: Xion Wang <xion.wang at mediatek.com>

Currently, misc_deregister() uses list_del() to remove the device
from the list. After list_del(), the list pointers are set to 
LIST_POISON1 and LIST_POISON2, which may help catch use-after-free bugs,
but does not reset the list head.
If misc_deregister() is called more than once on the same device,
list_empty() will not return true, and list_del() may be called again,
leading to undefined behavior.

Replace list_del() with list_del_init() to reinitialize the list head
after deletion. This makes the code more robust against double
deregistration and allows safe usage of list_empty() on the miscdevice
after deregistration.

Fixes: b329becfc78b1 ("char: add WARN_ON() in misc_deregister()")

Signed-off-by: Xion Wang <xion.wang at mediatek.com>
---
 drivers/char/misc.c | 2 +-
 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/drivers/char/misc.c b/drivers/char/misc.c
index 558302a64dd9..b5d44b08ad7b 100644
--- a/drivers/char/misc.c
+++ b/drivers/char/misc.c
@@ -279,7 +279,7 @@ void misc_deregister(struct miscdevice *misc)
 		return;
 
 	mutex_lock(&misc_mtx);
-	list_del(&misc->list);
+	list_del_init(&misc->list);
 	device_destroy(&misc_class, MKDEV(MISC_MAJOR, misc->minor));
 	misc_minor_free(misc->minor);
 	mutex_unlock(&misc_mtx);
-- 
2.45.2




More information about the linux-arm-kernel mailing list