[PATCH] rust: drm: fix unsound initialization in drm::Device::new

From: Eliot Courtney

Date: Tue Apr 28 2026 - 08:37:37 EST


If pinned initialization of drm::Device::Data fails, it calls
drm::Device::release via drm_dev_put. This materializes a reference to
&drm::Device, but it's not fully constructed yet, because initializing
`data` failed. It should not be dropped either. Instead, if pinned
initialization fails, make sure drm::Device::release isn't called.

Fixes: 2e9fdbe5ec7a ("rust: drm: device: drop_in_place() the drm::Device in release()")
Signed-off-by: Eliot Courtney <ecourtney@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
rust/kernel/drm/device.rs | 22 ++++++++++++++++------
1 file changed, 16 insertions(+), 6 deletions(-)

diff --git a/rust/kernel/drm/device.rs b/rust/kernel/drm/device.rs
index adbafe8db54d..78ea0eb12535 100644
--- a/rust/kernel/drm/device.rs
+++ b/rust/kernel/drm/device.rs
@@ -111,6 +111,13 @@ impl<T: drm::Driver> Device<T> {
fops: &Self::GEM_FOPS,
};

+ // Use a vtable without a `release` callback until `data` is initialized, so init failure
+ // can release the DRM device without dropping uninitialized fields.
+ const ALLOC_VTABLE: bindings::drm_driver = bindings::drm_driver {
+ release: None,
+ ..Self::VTABLE
+ };
+
const GEM_FOPS: bindings::file_operations = drm::gem::create_fops();

/// Create a new `drm::Device` for a `drm::Driver`.
@@ -120,12 +127,12 @@ pub fn new(dev: &device::Device, data: impl PinInit<T::Data, Error>) -> Result<A
let layout = Kmalloc::aligned_layout(Layout::new::<Self>());

// SAFETY:
- // - `VTABLE`, as a `const` is pinned to the read-only section of the compilation,
+ // - `ALLOC_VTABLE`, as a `const` is pinned to the read-only section of the compilation,
// - `dev` is valid by its type invarants,
let raw_drm: *mut Self = unsafe {
bindings::__drm_dev_alloc(
dev.as_raw(),
- &Self::VTABLE,
+ &Self::ALLOC_VTABLE,
layout.size(),
mem::offset_of!(Self, dev),
)
@@ -133,6 +140,10 @@ pub fn new(dev: &device::Device, data: impl PinInit<T::Data, Error>) -> Result<A
.cast();
let raw_drm = NonNull::new(from_err_ptr(raw_drm)?).ok_or(ENOMEM)?;

+ // SAFETY: `raw_drm` is a valid pointer to `Self`, given that `__drm_dev_alloc` was
+ // successful.
+ let drm_dev = unsafe { Self::into_drm_device(raw_drm) };
+
// SAFETY: `raw_drm` is a valid pointer to `Self`.
let raw_data = unsafe { ptr::addr_of_mut!((*raw_drm.as_ptr()).data) };

@@ -140,15 +151,14 @@ pub fn new(dev: &device::Device, data: impl PinInit<T::Data, Error>) -> Result<A
// - `raw_data` is a valid pointer to uninitialized memory.
// - `raw_data` will not move until it is dropped.
unsafe { data.__pinned_init(raw_data) }.inspect_err(|_| {
- // SAFETY: `raw_drm` is a valid pointer to `Self`, given that `__drm_dev_alloc` was
- // successful.
- let drm_dev = unsafe { Self::into_drm_device(raw_drm) };
-
// SAFETY: `__drm_dev_alloc()` was successful, hence `drm_dev` must be valid and the
// refcount must be non-zero.
unsafe { bindings::drm_dev_put(drm_dev) };
})?;

+ // SAFETY: `drm_dev` is still private to this function.
+ unsafe { (*drm_dev).driver = &Self::VTABLE };
+
// SAFETY: The reference count is one, and now we take ownership of that reference as a
// `drm::Device`.
Ok(unsafe { ARef::from_raw(raw_drm) })

---
base-commit: d9a6809478f9815b6455a327aa001737ac7b2c09
change-id: 20260428-fix-drm-1-459b6357de23

Best regards,
--
Eliot Courtney <ecourtney@xxxxxxxxxx>