In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: cxl: fix possible null-ptr-deref in cxl_pci_init_afu|adapter() If device_register() fails in cxl_pci_afu|adapter(), the device is not added, device_unregister() can not be called in the error path, otherwise it will cause a null-ptr-deref because of removing not added device. As comment of device_register() says, it should use put_device() to give up the reference in the error path. So split device_unregister() into device_del() and put_device(), then goes to put dev when register fails.