gpiochip_add_data() allocates the struct gpio_device using kmalloc(), which doesn't zero the returned memory. Hence when calling dev_set_name(), it may try to free a bogus old name, causing a crash: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000000 ... Backtrace: [<c01c9258>] (kfree) from [<c01a701c>] (kfree_const+0x28/0x34) r9:eea77210 r8:ffffffff r7:00000001 r6:eea77008 r5:eea77010 r4:ee13afc0 [<c01a6ff4>] (kfree_const) from [<c02c47cc>] (kobject_set_name_vargs+0x90/0xa0) [<c02c473c>] (kobject_set_name_vargs) from [<c038b374>] (dev_set_name+0x28/0x30) r6:eea77008 r5:eea7721c r4:eea77000 r3:00001743 [<c038b350>] (dev_set_name) from [<c02ed200>] (gpiochip_add_data+0xa8/0x5e4) r3:00001743 r2:00000001 r1:c083b195 [<c02ed158>] (gpiochip_add_data) from [<c02f0890>] (gpio_rcar_probe+0x228/0x344) r10:ee922e9c r9:ee922e00 r8:0000001a r7:eea7721c r6:ee90e010 r5:ee922e80 r4:eea77210 [<c02f0668>] (gpio_rcar_probe) from [<c0390220>] (platform_drv_probe+0x58/0xa8) Use kzalloc() instead of kmalloc() to fix this. See also the comment for device_initialize(): All fields in @dev must be initialized by the caller to 0, except for those explicitly set to some other value. The simplest approach is to use kzalloc() to allocate the structure containing @dev. Fixes: ff2b135922992756 ("gpio: make the gpiochip a real device") Signed-off-by: Geert Uytterhoeven <geert+renesas@xxxxxxxxx> --- drivers/gpio/gpiolib.c | 2 +- 1 file changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/drivers/gpio/gpiolib.c b/drivers/gpio/gpiolib.c index aa4a60e19339b8b5..dc49ba3fe5acf089 100644 --- a/drivers/gpio/gpiolib.c +++ b/drivers/gpio/gpiolib.c @@ -435,7 +435,7 @@ int gpiochip_add_data(struct gpio_chip *chip, void *data) * First: allocate and populate the internal stat container, and * set up the struct device. */ - gdev = kmalloc(sizeof(*gdev), GFP_KERNEL); + gdev = kzalloc(sizeof(*gdev), GFP_KERNEL); if (!gdev) return -ENOMEM; gdev->dev.bus = &gpio_bus_type; -- 1.9.1