The patch titled Avoid potential NULL dereference in unregister_sysctl_table has been removed from the -mm tree. Its filename was avoid-potential-null-dereference-in-unregister_sysctl_table.patch This patch was dropped because it was merged into mainline or a subsystem tree ------------------------------------------------------ Subject: Avoid potential NULL dereference in unregister_sysctl_table From: Pavel Emelyanov <xemul@xxxxxxxxxx> register_sysctl_table() can return NULL sometimes, e.g. when kmalloc() returns NULL or when sysctl check fails. I've also noticed, that many (most?) code in the kernel doesn't check for the return value from register_sysctl_table() and later simply calls the unregister_sysctl_table() with potentially NULL argument. This is unlikely on a common kernel configuration, but in case we're dealing with modules and/or fault-injection support, there's a slight possibility of an OOPS. Changing all the users to check for return code from the registering does not look like a good solution - there are too many code doing this and failure in sysctl tables registration is not a good reason to abort module loading (in most of the cases). So I think, that we can just have this check in unregister_sysctl_table just to avoid accidental OOPS-es (actually, the unregister_sysctl_table() did exactly this, before the start_unregistering() appeared). Signed-off-by: Pavel Emelyanov <xemul@xxxxxxxxxx> Cc: "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederm@xxxxxxxxxxxx> Signed-off-by: Andrew Morton <akpm@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> --- kernel/sysctl.c | 4 ++++ 1 file changed, 4 insertions(+) diff -puN kernel/sysctl.c~avoid-potential-null-dereference-in-unregister_sysctl_table kernel/sysctl.c --- a/kernel/sysctl.c~avoid-potential-null-dereference-in-unregister_sysctl_table +++ a/kernel/sysctl.c @@ -1588,6 +1588,10 @@ struct ctl_table_header *register_sysctl void unregister_sysctl_table(struct ctl_table_header * header) { might_sleep(); + + if (header == NULL) + return; + spin_lock(&sysctl_lock); start_unregistering(header); spin_unlock(&sysctl_lock); _ Patches currently in -mm which might be from xemul@xxxxxxxxxx are origin.patch revert-fix-proc-net-breakage.patch git-net.patch merge-multiple-error-paths-in-alloc_uid-into-one.patch shmem-factor-out-sbi-free_inodes-manipulations.patch shmem-factor-out-sbi-free_inodes-manipulations-fix.patch memory-controller-add-documentation.patch memory-controller-resource-counters-v7.patch memory-controller-containers-setup-v7.patch memory-controller-accounting-setup-v7.patch memory-controller-memory-accounting-v7.patch memory-controller-task-migration-v7.patch memory-controller-add-per-container-lru-and-reclaim-v7.patch memory-controller-add-per-container-lru-and-reclaim-v7-memcgroup-fix-try_to_free-order.patch memory-controller-improve-user-interface.patch memory-controller-oom-handling-v7.patch memory-controller-add-switch-to-control-what-type-of-pages-to-limit-v7.patch memory-controller-make-page_referenced-container-aware-v7.patch memory-controller-make-charging-gfp-mask-aware.patch memcgroup-reinstate-swapoff-mod.patch bugfix-for-memory-cgroup-controller-charge-refcnt-race-fix.patch bugfix-for-memory-cgroup-controller-fix-error-handling-path-in-mem_charge_cgroup.patch bugfix-for-memory-controller-add-helper-function-for-assigning-cgroup-to-page.patch bugfix-for-memory-cgroup-controller-avoid-pagelru-page-in-mem_cgroup_isolate_pages.patch bugfix-for-memory-cgroup-controller-avoid-pagelru-page-in-mem_cgroup_isolate_pages-fix.patch memcgroup-fix-zone-isolation-oom.patch memcgroup-revert-swap_state-mods.patch bugfix-for-memory-cgroup-controller-migration-under-memory-controller-fix.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-fix-zone-handling-in-try_to_free_mem_cgroup_page.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-force_empty-interface-for-dropping-all-account-in-empty-cgroup.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-remember-a-page-is-charged-as-page-cache.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-remember-a-page-is-on-active-list-of-cgroup-or-not.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-add-status-accounting-function-for-memory-cgroup.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-add-status-accounting-function-for-memory-cgroup-checkpatch-fixes.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-add-status-accounting-function-for-memory-cgroup-fix-1.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-add-status-accounting-function-for-memory-cgroup-uninlining.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-add-status-accounting-function-for-memory-cgroup-fix-2.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-add-memorystat-file.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-add-memorystat-file-checkpatch-fixes.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-add-memorystat-file-printk-fix.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-add-pre_destroy-handler.patch memory-cgroup-enhancements-implicit-force_empty-at-rmdir.patch per-zone-and-reclaim-enhancements-for-memory-controller-take-3-add-scan_global_lru-macro.patch per-zone-and-reclaim-enhancements-for-memory-controller-take-3-nid-zid-helper-function-for-cgroup.patch per-zone-and-reclaim-enhancements-for-memory-controller-take-3-per-zone-active-inactive-counter.patch per-zone-and-reclaim-enhancements-for-memory-controller-take-3-calculate-mapper_ratio-per-cgroup.patch per-zone-and-reclaim-enhancements-for-memory-controller-take-3-calculate-active-inactive-imbalance-per-cgroup.patch per-zone-and-reclaim-enhancements-for-memory-controller-take-3-remember-reclaim-priority-in-memory-cgroup.patch per-zone-and-reclaim-enhancements-for-memory-controller-take-3-remember-reclaim-priority-in-memory-cgroup-fix.patch per-zone-and-reclaim-enhancements-for-memory-controller-take-3-remember-reclaim-priority-in-memory-cgroup-fix-2.patch per-zone-and-reclaim-enhancements-for-memory-controller-take-3-calculate-the-number-of-pages-to-be-scanned-per-cgroup.patch per-zone-and-reclaim-enhancements-for-memory-controller-take-3-modifies-vmscanc-for-isolate-globa-cgroup-lru-activity.patch per-zone-and-reclaim-enhancements-for-memory-controller-take-3-modifies-vmscanc-for-isolate-globa-cgroup-lru-activity-fix.patch per-zone-and-reclaim-enhancements-for-memory-controller-take-3-per-zone-lru-for-cgroup.patch per-zone-and-reclaim-enhancements-for-memory-controller-take-3-per-zone-lock-for-cgroup.patch add-the-namespaces-config-option.patch move-the-uts-namespace-under-uts_ns-option.patch move-the-ipc-namespace-under-ipc_ns-option.patch cleanup-the-code-managed-with-the-user_ns-option.patch cleanup-the-code-managed-with-the-user_ns-option-checkpatch-fixes.patch cleanup-the-code-managed-with-pid_ns-option.patch cleanup-the-code-managed-with-pid_ns-option-checkpatch-fixes.patch mark-net_ns-with-depends-on-namespaces.patch proc-seqfile-convert-proc_pid_status-to-properly-handle-pid-namespaces.patch proc-seqfile-convert-proc_pid_status-to-properly-handle-pid-namespaces-checkpatch-fixes.patch proc-proper-pidns-handling-for-proc-self.patch proc-fix-the-threaded-proc-self.patch ipc-uninline-some-code-from-utilh.patch ipc-make-struct-ipc_ids-static-in-ipc_namespace.patch ipc-consolidate-sem_exit_ns-msg_exit_ns-and-shm_exit_ns.patch sys_setpgid-simplify-pid-ns-interaction.patch fix-setsid-for-sub-namespace-sbin-init.patch teach-set_special_pids-to-use-struct-pid.patch move-daemonized-kernel-threads-into-the-swappers-session.patch start-the-global-sbin-init-with-00-special-pids.patch reiser4.patch - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe mm-commits" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html