In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:

ext4: update orig_path in ext4_find_extent()

In ext4_find_extent(), if the path is not big enough, we free it and set
*orig_path to NULL. But after reallocating and successfully initializing
the path, we don't update *orig_path, in which case the caller gets a
valid path but a NULL ppath, and this may cause a NULL pointer dereference
or a path memory leak. For example:

ext4_split_extent
path = *ppath = 2000
ext4_find_extent
if (depth > path[0].p_maxdepth)
kfree(path = 2000);
*orig_path = path = NULL;
path = kcalloc() = 3000
ext4_split_extent_at(*ppath = NULL)
path = *ppath;
ex = path[depth].p_ext;
// NULL pointer dereference!

==================================================================
BUG: kernel NULL pointer dereference, address: 0000000000000010
CPU: 6 UID: 0 PID: 576 Comm: fsstress Not tainted 6.11.0-rc2-dirty #847
RIP: 0010:ext4_split_extent_at+0x6d/0x560
Call Trace:
<TASK>
ext4_split_extent.isra.0+0xcb/0x1b0
ext4_ext_convert_to_initialized+0x168/0x6c0
ext4_ext_handle_unwritten_extents+0x325/0x4d0
ext4_ext_map_blocks+0x520/0xdb0
ext4_map_blocks+0x2b0/0x690
ext4_iomap_begin+0x20e/0x2c0
[...]
==================================================================

Therefore, *orig_path is updated when the extent lookup succeeds, so that
the caller can safely use path or *ppath.