Thread (6 messages) 6 messages, 1 author, 3d ago
WARM3d

[PATCH v4 3/5] perf trace-event: Avoid double free and leak in trace_event__cleanup()/trace_event__init()

From: Tanushree Shah <hidden>
Date: 2026-07-25 18:50:41
Also in: linux-perf-users
Subsystem: performance events subsystem, the rest · Maintainers: Peter Zijlstra, Ingo Molnar, Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo, Namhyung Kim, Linus Torvalds

trace_event__cleanup() frees t->pevent but never clears the
pointer. It can be called twice on the same trace_event: once
from trace_report()'s error path, and again from
perf_session__delete() during session teardown, resulting in a
double free / use-after-free.

Separately, trace_event__init() overwrites t->pevent/t->plugin_list
without releasing any existing handle, leaking memory if it's
called more than once on the same struct. eg. via a perf.data
file with multiple PERF_RECORD_HEADER_TRACING_DATA headers.

Guard against re-entry by returning early if t->pevent is already
NULL, and clear it after cleanup so a repeat call is a safe no-op.
Call trace_event__cleanup() at the start of trace_event__init(),
so a repeated init releases any existing handle before allocating
a new one.

Signed-off-by: Tanushree Shah <redacted>
---
 tools/perf/util/trace-event.c | 11 ++++++++++-
 1 file changed, 10 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/trace-event.c b/tools/perf/util/trace-event.c
index 6a8c66c64b70..000c1e1d68c1 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/trace-event.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/trace-event.c
@@ -26,7 +26,11 @@ static bool tevent_initialized;
 
 int trace_event__init(struct trace_event *t)
 {
-	struct tep_handle *pevent = tep_alloc();
+	struct tep_handle *pevent;
+
+	trace_event__cleanup(t);
+
+	pevent = tep_alloc();
 
 	if (pevent) {
 		t->plugin_list = tep_load_plugins(pevent);
@@ -63,8 +67,13 @@ int trace_event__register_resolver(struct machine *machine,
 
 void trace_event__cleanup(struct trace_event *t)
 {
+	if (!t->pevent)
+		return;
+
 	tep_unload_plugins(t->plugin_list, t->pevent);
 	tep_free(t->pevent);
+	t->pevent = NULL;
+	t->plugin_list = NULL;
 }
 
 /*
-- 
2.47.3

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