kfree_sensitive(9)

🌸 NAME 🌸

okay so bestie, welcome to kfree_sensitive(9) from the Kernel API Manual — it's literally the “clear sensitive information in memory before freeing” function. Wipe the secrets, then free. Main character cleanup energy, no cap. 👑

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

void kfree_sensitive (const void *p );

🎀 ARGUMENTS 🎀

• p — the object to free the memory of. That's the whole argument, bestie. 💅

🦋 DESCRIPTION 🦋

The memory of the object that p points to is zeroed before it gets freed. Like, the sensitive info gets scrubbed first — the way that it should be. ✨

If p is NULL, kfree_sensitive does nothing. Literally nothing. No notes. 🙈

💀 NOTE 💀

ok so important vibe check: this function zeroes the whole allocated buffer, and that buffer can be a good deal bigger than the requested buffer size you passed to kmalloc. So be careful when you're using this function in performance sensitive code. Not me warning you twice — the manpage said it first. 😭

🌈 SEE ALSO 🌈

• Kernel file ./mm/slab_common.c
• __kmem_cache_create_args(9)
• kmem_buckets_create(9)
• kmem_cache_shrink(9)
• kmem_dump_obj(9)
• struct kvfree_rcu_bulk_data(9)
• struct kfree_rcu_cpu_work(9)
• struct kfree_rcu_cpu(9)
• kvfree_rcu_barrier(9)
• kvfree_rcu_barrier_on_cache(9)

and that's the page, bestie 🫶 source/version ./mm, date October 2026, page kfree_sensitive(9) — slay and stay safe out there 💖✨