WARNING: refcount bug in new_device_store

Status: upstream: reported C repro on 2026/08/14 11:06
Subsystems: net
[Documentation on labels]
Reported-by: syzbot+989ff6506f5c6d1ff56b@syzkaller.appspotmail.com
First crash: 15d, last: 16h09m
✨ AI Jobs (5)
ID Workflow Result Correct Bug Created Started Finished Revision
41d78ea3 repro-c Reproduced: ✅ WARNING: refcount bug in new_device_store 2026/08/13 20:04 2026/08/13 22:41 2026/08/13 23:25 0165196a
db0baa3b assessment-security 💥 WARNING: refcount bug in new_device_store 2026/08/09 07:33 2026/08/09 07:33 2026/08/09 07:33 5d63f80b
2abf4f0c assessment-security 💥 WARNING: refcount bug in new_device_store 2026/08/04 00:20 2026/08/04 00:20 2026/08/04 00:20 cb1adeae
b69a4b7f assessment-security 💥 WARNING: refcount bug in new_device_store 2026/08/02 00:00 2026/08/02 00:00 2026/08/02 00:00 e611ffe1
4a6ebd1d assessment-security 💥 WARNING: refcount bug in new_device_store 2026/08/01 00:00 2026/08/01 00:00 2026/08/01 00:00 7664cf44
Discussions (1)
Title Replies (including bot) Last reply
[syzbot] [net?] WARNING: refcount bug in new_device_store 1 (3) 2026/08/15 00:22
Last patch testing requests (2)
Created Duration User Patch Repo Result
2026/08/15 00:07 14m hdanton@sina.com patch upstream report job log log
2026/08/14 08:23 21m nogikh@google.com upstream report job log log

Sample crash report:
 </TASK>
kobject: kobject_add_internal failed for netdevsim1 (error: -12 parent: devices)
------------[ cut here ]------------
refcount_t: addition on 0; use-after-free.
WARNING: lib/refcount.c:25 at refcount_warn_saturate+0x111/0x130 lib/refcount.c:25, CPU#2: syz-executor324/6031
Modules linked in:
CPU: 2 UID: 0 PID: 6031 Comm: syz-executor324 Not tainted syzkaller #0 PREEMPT(full) 
Hardware name: QEMU Standard PC (Q35 + ICH9, 2009), BIOS 1.16.3-debian-1.16.3-2 04/01/2014
RIP: 0010:refcount_warn_saturate+0x111/0x130 lib/refcount.c:25
Code: 06 e8 b3 92 ec fc 48 8d 3d bc c2 0e 0c 67 48 0f b9 3a e8 a2 92 ec fc 5b 5d c3 cc cc cc cc e8 96 92 ec fc 48 8d 3d af c2 0e 0c <67> 48 0f b9 3a e8 85 92 ec fc 5b 5d c3 cc cc cc cc 48 89 df e8 36
RSP: 0018:ffffc90003587b80 EFLAGS: 00010293
RAX: 0000000000000000 RBX: ffffffff9ba33900 RCX: ffffffff851de03b
RDX: ffff88802a11a540 RSI: ffffffff851de0ea RDI: ffffffff912ca3a0
RBP: 0000000000000002 R08: 0000000000000005 R09: 0000000000000004
R10: 0000000000000002 R11: 0000000000000000 R12: 0000000000000005
R13: 0000000000000000 R14: 0000000000000002 R15: 0000000000000001
FS:  000055558c1ff400(0000) GS:ffff8880d5fe9000(0000) knlGS:0000000000000000
CS:  0010 DS: 0000 ES: 0000 CR0: 0000000080050033
CR2: 0000558dbbbdfda8 CR3: 000000003f842000 CR4: 0000000000352ef0
Call Trace:
 <TASK>
 __refcount_add include/linux/refcount.h:289 [inline]
 __refcount_inc include/linux/refcount.h:366 [inline]
 refcount_inc include/linux/refcount.h:383 [inline]
 new_device_store+0x682/0x700 drivers/net/netdevsim/bus.c:197
 bus_attr_store+0x74/0xb0 drivers/base/bus.c:172
 sysfs_kf_write+0xf2/0x150 fs/sysfs/file.c:145
 kernfs_fop_write_iter+0x3e0/0x5f0 fs/kernfs/file.c:345
 new_sync_write fs/read_write.c:595 [inline]
 vfs_write+0x6ac/0x1050 fs/read_write.c:687
 ksys_pwrite64 fs/read_write.c:794 [inline]
 __do_sys_pwrite64 fs/read_write.c:802 [inline]
 __se_sys_pwrite64 fs/read_write.c:799 [inline]
 __x64_sys_pwrite64+0x1eb/0x250 fs/read_write.c:799
 do_syscall_x64 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:63 [inline]
 do_syscall_64+0x115/0x870 arch/x86/entry/syscall_64.c:94
 entry_SYSCALL_64_after_hwframe+0x77/0x7f
RIP: 0033:0x7ff5691f4237
Code: 48 89 fa 4c 89 df e8 98 1d 00 00 8b 93 08 03 00 00 59 5e 48 83 f8 fc 74 1a 5b c3 0f 1f 84 00 00 00 00 00 48 8b 44 24 10 0f 05 <5b> c3 0f 1f 80 00 00 00 00 83 e2 39 83 fa 08 75 de e8 23 ff ff ff
RSP: 002b:00007fffaed29530 EFLAGS: 00000202 ORIG_RAX: 0000000000000012
RAX: ffffffffffffffda RBX: 000055558c1ff400 RCX: 00007ff5691f4237
RDX: 0000000000000005 RSI: 00007ff56922d0cd RDI: 0000000000000004
RBP: 0000000000000004 R08: 0000000000000000 R09: 0000000000000000
R10: 0000000000000000 R11: 0000000000000202 R12: 0000000000000003
R13: 00007fffaed29580 R14: 0000000000000007 R15: 00007ff56922d4c2
 </TASK>
----------------
Code disassembly (best guess), 1 bytes skipped:
   0:	e8 b3 92 ec fc       	call   0xfcec92b8
   5:	48 8d 3d bc c2 0e 0c 	lea    0xc0ec2bc(%rip),%rdi        # 0xc0ec2c8
   c:	67 48 0f b9 3a       	ud1    (%edx),%rdi
  11:	e8 a2 92 ec fc       	call   0xfcec92b8
  16:	5b                   	pop    %rbx
  17:	5d                   	pop    %rbp
  18:	c3                   	ret
  19:	cc                   	int3
  1a:	cc                   	int3
  1b:	cc                   	int3
  1c:	cc                   	int3
  1d:	e8 96 92 ec fc       	call   0xfcec92b8
  22:	48 8d 3d af c2 0e 0c 	lea    0xc0ec2af(%rip),%rdi        # 0xc0ec2d8
* 29:	67 48 0f b9 3a       	ud1    (%edx),%rdi <-- trapping instruction
  2e:	e8 85 92 ec fc       	call   0xfcec92b8
  33:	5b                   	pop    %rbx
  34:	5d                   	pop    %rbp
  35:	c3                   	ret
  36:	cc                   	int3
  37:	cc                   	int3
  38:	cc                   	int3
  39:	cc                   	int3
  3a:	48 89 df             	mov    %rbx,%rdi
  3d:	e8                   	.byte 0xe8
  3e:	36                   	ss

Crashes (2):
Time Kernel Commit Syzkaller Config Log Report Syz repro C repro VM info Assets (help?) Manager Title
2026/08/14 11:05 upstream 2f1baf1fc892 abc81b93 .config console log report C ci-qemu-upstream WARNING: refcount bug in new_device_store
2026/07/30 12:28 upstream 11028ab62899 abc81b93 .config console log report info [disk image (non-bootable)] [vmlinux] [kernel image] ci-qemu-upstream-386 WARNING: refcount bug in new_device_store
* Struck through repros no longer work on HEAD.