In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: fs: sysfs: Fix reference leak in sysfsbreakactiveprotection() The sysfsbreakactiveprotection() routine has an obvious reference leak in its error path. If the call to kernfsfindandget() fails then kn will be NULL, so the companion sysfsunbreakactiveprotection() routine won't get called (and would only cause an access violation by trying to dereference kn->parent if it was called). As a result, the reference to kobj acquired at the start of the function will never be released. Fix the leak by adding an explicit kobject_put() call when kn is NULL.