1 files changed, 20 insertions, 3 deletions
diff --git a/tools/perf/util/thread.c b/tools/perf/util/thread.c
index b413ba5b9835..7bfb740d2ede 100644
--- a/tools/perf/util/thread.c
+++ b/tools/perf/util/thread.c
@@ -125,10 +125,27 @@ void thread__put(struct thread *thread)
 {
 	if (thread && refcount_dec_and_test(&thread->refcnt)) {
 		/*
-		 * Remove it from the dead_threads list, as last reference
-		 * is gone.
+		 * Remove it from the dead threads list, as last reference is
+		 * gone, if it is in a dead threads list.
+		 *
+		 * We may not be there anymore if say, the machine where it was
+		 * stored was already deleted, so we already removed it from
+		 * the dead threads and some other piece of code still keeps a
+		 * reference.
+		 *
+		 * This is what 'perf sched' does and finally drops it in
+		 * perf_sched__lat(), where it calls perf_sched__read_events(),
+		 * that processes the events by creating a session and deleting
+		 * it, which ends up destroying the list heads for the dead
+		 * threads, but before it does that it removes all threads from
+		 * it using list_del_init().
+		 *
+		 * So we need to check here if it is in a dead threads list and
+		 * if so, remove it before finally deleting the thread, to avoid
+		 * an use after free situation.
 		 */
-		list_del_init(&thread->node);
+		if (!list_empty(&thread->node))
+			list_del_init(&thread->node);
 		thread__delete(thread);
 	}
 }