It turns out that arch/x86/events/intel/core.c makes use of "empty" attributes. static struct attribute *empty_attrs; __init int intel_pmu_init(void) { struct attribute **extra_skl_attr = &empty_attrs; struct attribute **extra_attr = &empty_attrs; struct attribute **td_attr = &empty_attrs; struct attribute **mem_attr = &empty_attrs; struct attribute **tsx_attr = &empty_attrs; ... That breaks the assumption __first_visible() that expects that if grp->attrs is set then grp->attrs[0] must also be set and results in backtraces like: BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 00rnel mode #PF: error_code(0x0000) - not-present ] PREEMPT SMP NOPTI CPU: 1 PID: 1 Comm: swapper/IP: 0010:exra_is_visible+0x14/0x20 ? exc_page_fault+0x68/0x190 internal_create_groups+0x42/0xa0 pmu_dev_alloc+0xc0/0xe0 perf_event_sysfs_init+0x580000000000 ]--- RIP: 0010:exra_is_visible+0x14/0 Check for non-empty attributes array before calling is_visible(). Reported-by: Pierre-Louis Bossart <pierre-louis.bossart@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> Closes: https://github.com/thesofproject/linux/pull/4799#issuecomment-1958537212 Fixes: 70317fd24b41 ("sysfs: Introduce a mechanism to hide static attribute_groups") Cc: Marc Herbert <marc.herbert@xxxxxxxxx> Cc: "Rafael J. Wysocki" <rafael@xxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Dan Williams <dan.j.williams@xxxxxxxxx> --- fs/sysfs/group.c | 4 ++-- 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 2 deletions(-) diff --git a/fs/sysfs/group.c b/fs/sysfs/group.c index ccb275cdabcb..8c63ba3cfc47 100644 --- a/fs/sysfs/group.c +++ b/fs/sysfs/group.c @@ -33,10 +33,10 @@ static void remove_files(struct kernfs_node *parent, static umode_t __first_visible(const struct attribute_group *grp, struct kobject *kobj) { - if (grp->attrs && grp->is_visible) + if (grp->attrs && grp->attrs[0] && grp->is_visible) return grp->is_visible(kobj, grp->attrs[0], 0); - if (grp->bin_attrs && grp->is_bin_visible) + if (grp->bin_attrs && grp->bin_attrs[0] && grp->is_bin_visible) return grp->is_bin_visible(kobj, grp->bin_attrs[0], 0); return 0;