In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: clk: mmp2: call pm_genpd_init() only after genpd.name is set Setting the genpd's struct device's name with dev_set_name() is happening within pm_genpd_init(). If it remains NULL, things can blow up later, such as when crafting the devfs hierarchy for the power domain: Unable to handle kernel NULL pointer dereference at virtual address 00000000 when read ... Call trace: strlen from start_creating+0x90/0x138 start_creating from debugfs_create_dir+0x20/0x178 debugfs_create_dir from genpd_debug_add.part.0+0x4c/0x144 genpd_debug_add.part.0 from genpd_debug_init+0x74/0x90 genpd_debug_init from do_one_initcall+0x5c/0x244 do_one_initcall from kernel_init_freeable+0x19c/0x1f4 kernel_init_freeable from kernel_init+0x1c/0x12c kernel_init from ret_from_fork+0x14/0x28 Bisecting tracks this crash back to commit 899f44531fe6 ("pmdomain: core: Add GENPD_FLAG_DEV_NAME_FW flag"), which exchanges use of genpd->name with dev_name(&genpd->dev) in genpd_debug_add.part().