[PATCH 9/9] perf sched: Replace BUG_ON and add NULL checks in replay event helpers

From: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo

Date: Fri Jun 05 2026 - 19:40:02 EST


From: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@xxxxxxxxxx>

get_new_event() has three issues:

1. The zalloc() result is dereferenced without a NULL check, crashing
on allocation failure.

2. BUG_ON(!task->atoms) kills the process when realloc() fails.
Since perf.data is untrusted input, this should be a graceful error.

3. The realloc pattern assigns directly to task->atoms, losing the old
pointer on failure. task->nr_events is also incremented before the
realloc, leaving corrupted state on failure.

Fix get_new_event() to:
- Check the zalloc() result before dereferencing
- Use a temporary for realloc() to avoid losing the old pointer
- Increment nr_events only after successful realloc
- Return NULL instead of calling BUG_ON on failure

Also fix add_sched_event_wakeup() where zalloc() for wait_sem is
passed to sem_init() without a NULL check.

Update all callers (add_sched_event_run, add_sched_event_wakeup,
add_sched_event_sleep) to handle NULL returns by returning early.
The replay may produce incomplete output on OOM but will not crash.

Fixes: ec156764d424 ("perf sched: Import schedbench.c")
Reported-by: sashiko-bot <sashiko-bot@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Ingo Molnar <mingo@xxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Namhyung Kim <namhyung@xxxxxxxxxx>
Assisted-by: Claude Opus 4.6 <noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Signed-off-by: Arnaldo Carvalho de Melo <acme@xxxxxxxxxx>
---
tools/perf/builtin-sched.c | 28 +++++++++++++++++++++++++---
1 file changed, 25 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/tools/perf/builtin-sched.c b/tools/perf/builtin-sched.c
index 732c65008a8a5240..b7ccdc6a985d1c7b 100644
--- a/tools/perf/builtin-sched.c
+++ b/tools/perf/builtin-sched.c
@@ -365,14 +365,25 @@ get_new_event(struct task_desc *task, u64 timestamp)
struct sched_atom *event = zalloc(sizeof(*event));
unsigned long idx = task->nr_events;
size_t size;
+ struct sched_atom **atoms_p;
+
+ if (event == NULL) {
+ pr_err("ERROR: sched: failed to allocate event\n");
+ return NULL;
+ }

event->timestamp = timestamp;
event->nr = idx;

+ size = sizeof(struct sched_atom *) * (task->nr_events + 1);
+ atoms_p = realloc(task->atoms, size);
+ if (!atoms_p) {
+ pr_err("ERROR: sched: failed to grow atoms array\n");
+ free(event);
+ return NULL;
+ }
+ task->atoms = atoms_p;
task->nr_events++;
- size = sizeof(struct sched_atom *) * task->nr_events;
- task->atoms = realloc(task->atoms, size);
- BUG_ON(!task->atoms);

task->atoms[idx] = event;

@@ -403,6 +414,8 @@ static void add_sched_event_run(struct perf_sched *sched, struct task_desc *task
}

event = get_new_event(task, timestamp);
+ if (event == NULL)
+ return;

event->type = SCHED_EVENT_RUN;
event->duration = duration;
@@ -416,6 +429,8 @@ static void add_sched_event_wakeup(struct perf_sched *sched, struct task_desc *t
struct sched_atom *event, *wakee_event;

event = get_new_event(task, timestamp);
+ if (event == NULL)
+ return;
event->type = SCHED_EVENT_WAKEUP;
event->wakee = wakee;

@@ -430,6 +445,10 @@ static void add_sched_event_wakeup(struct perf_sched *sched, struct task_desc *t
}

wakee_event->wait_sem = zalloc(sizeof(*wakee_event->wait_sem));
+ if (!wakee_event->wait_sem) {
+ pr_err("ERROR: sched: failed to allocate semaphore\n");
+ return;
+ }
sem_init(wakee_event->wait_sem, 0, 0);
event->wait_sem = wakee_event->wait_sem;

@@ -441,6 +460,9 @@ static void add_sched_event_sleep(struct perf_sched *sched, struct task_desc *ta
{
struct sched_atom *event = get_new_event(task, timestamp);

+ if (event == NULL)
+ return;
+
event->type = SCHED_EVENT_SLEEP;

sched->nr_sleep_events++;
--
2.54.0