This sequence can return non-zeroed memory from the padding area of the original allocation. ptr = kzalloc(foo, GFP_KERNEL); if (!ptr) ... new_ptr = krealloc(ptr, foo + bar, GFP_KERNEL | __GFP_ZERO); If the realloc size is within the first actual allocation then the additional memory is not zeroed. If the realloc size is not within the original allocation size, any non-zeroed padding from the original allocation is overwriting newly allocated zeroed memory. Maybe someone more familiar with the alignment & padding can add the proper memset(,0,) for the __GFP_ZERO cases and also optimize kmalloc_track_caller to not use __GFP_ZERO, memcpy the current (non padded) size and zero the newly returned remainder if necessary. from: mm/util.c --------------------------- static __always_inline void *__do_krealloc(const void *p, size_t new_size, gfp_t flags) { void *ret; size_t ks = 0; if (p) ks = ksize(p); if (ks >= new_size) return (void *)p; ret = kmalloc_track_caller(new_size, flags); if (ret && p) memcpy(ret, p, ks); return ret; } -- To unsubscribe, send a message with 'unsubscribe linux-mm' in the body to majordomo@xxxxxxxxx. For more info on Linux MM, see: http://www.linux-mm.org/ . Don't email: <a href=mailto:"dont@xxxxxxxxx"> email@xxxxxxxxx </a>