In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
mtd: fix double free and WARN_ON in add_mtd_device() error paths
When device_register() or mtd_nvmem_add() fails inside
add_mtd_device() for a partition, the error handling triggers
mtd_release() via put_device() or device_unregister(). mtd_release()
calls release_mtd_partition() which frees the mtd_info structure.
However, callers such as mtd_add_partition() and add_mtd_partitions()
also call free_partition() in their error paths, resulting in a double
free.
Additionally, release_mtd_partition() hits WARN_ON(!list_empty(
&mtd->part.node)) because the partition node is still linked in the
parent's partitions list when the release callback fires from the
add_mtd_device() error path.
Fix this by overriding dev->type and dev->release before put_device()
in the error paths, so that device_release() invokes a no-op function
instead of mtd_release(). For the mtd_nvmem_add() failure case,
device_unregister() is replaced with device_del() to separate the
device removal from the final kobject reference drop, allowing the
override to take effect before put_device() is called.
The callers' error paths (list_del + free_partition) remain the sole
owners of mtd_info lifetime on add_mtd_device() failure, which is the
expected contract.
The normal partition teardown path is not affected: del_mtd_device()
goes through kref_put() -> mtd_device_release() -> device_unregister()
with dev->type still set to &mtd_devtype, so mtd_release() ->
release_mtd_partition() continues to work correctly for the regular
removal case.