Linux Kernel Memory Leak Vulnerability in Thermal Cooling Device Registration

A memory leak vulnerability has been identified in the Linux kernel's thermal cooling device registration process. This issue arises in the thermal/core component when the __thermal_cooling_device_register() function is called. If the device_register() function fails, the thermal_cooling_device_destroy_sysfs() function needs to be invoked to free the allocated memory. The vulnerability was discovered during a fault injection test, which revealed an unreferenced object, indicating a memory leak.

Impact

Exploitation of this vulnerability leads to a memory leak, where allocated memory is not properly released, potentially causing increased memory usage and degradation of system performance over time.