During appletb_kbd_probe, probe attempts to get the backlight device
by name. When this happens backlight_device_get_by_name looks for a
device in the backlight class which has name "appletb_backlight" and
upon finding a match it increments the reference count for the device
and returns it to the caller. However this reference is never released 
leading to a reference leak.

Fix this by decrementing the backlight device reference count on removal
via put_device and on probe failure.

Fixes: 93a0fc489481 ("HID: hid-appletb-kbd: add support for automatic brightness control while using the touchbar")
Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
Signed-off-by: Qasim Ijaz <qasdev00@gmail.com>
---
 drivers/hid/hid-appletb-kbd.c | 5 +++++
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+)

diff --git a/drivers/hid/hid-appletb-kbd.c b/drivers/hid/hid-appletb-kbd.c
index ef51b2c06872..e06567886e50 100644
--- a/drivers/hid/hid-appletb-kbd.c
+++ b/drivers/hid/hid-appletb-kbd.c
@@ -438,6 +438,8 @@ static int appletb_kbd_probe(struct hid_device *hdev, const struct hid_device_id
 	return 0;
 
 close_hw:
+	if (kbd->backlight_dev)
+		put_device(&kbd->backlight_dev->dev);
 	hid_hw_close(hdev);
 stop_hw:
 	hid_hw_stop(hdev);
@@ -453,6 +455,9 @@ static void appletb_kbd_remove(struct hid_device *hdev)
 	input_unregister_handler(&kbd->inp_handler);
 	timer_delete_sync(&kbd->inactivity_timer);
 
+	if (kbd->backlight_dev)
+		put_device(&kbd->backlight_dev->dev);
+
 	hid_hw_close(hdev);
 	hid_hw_stop(hdev);
 }
-- 
2.39.5

On Sun, 15 Jun 2025, Qasim Ijaz wrote:

> During appletb_kbd_probe, probe attempts to get the backlight device
> by name. When this happens backlight_device_get_by_name looks for a
> device in the backlight class which has name "appletb_backlight" and
> upon finding a match it increments the reference count for the device
> and returns it to the caller. However this reference is never released 
> leading to a reference leak.
> 
> Fix this by decrementing the backlight device reference count on removal
> via put_device and on probe failure.
> 
> Fixes: 93a0fc489481 ("HID: hid-appletb-kbd: add support for automatic brightness control while using the touchbar")
> Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
> Signed-off-by: Qasim Ijaz <qasdev00@gmail.com>

Applied, thanks.

-- 
Jiri Kosina
SUSE Labs

Hi Qasim

> During appletb_kbd_probe, probe attempts to get the backlight device
> by name. When this happens backlight_device_get_by_name looks for a
> device in the backlight class which has name "appletb_backlight" and
> upon finding a match it increments the reference count for the device
> and returns it to the caller. However this reference is never released 
> leading to a reference leak.

Good catch.

> Fix this by decrementing the backlight device reference count on removal
> via put_device and on probe failure.

Thanks for the fix!

> Fixes: 93a0fc489481 ("HID: hid-appletb-kbd: add support for automatic brightness control while using the touchbar")
> Cc: stable@vger.kernel.org
> Signed-off-by: Qasim Ijaz <qasdev00@gmail.com>

Reviewed-by: Aditya Garg <gargaditya08@live.com>