diff --git a/kernel/events/core.c b/kernel/events/core.c
index 785d708f8553..5dd19bedbf64 100644
--- a/kernel/events/core.c
+++ b/kernel/events/core.c
@@ -4465,12 +4465,20 @@ static void _free_event(struct perf_event *event)
 	if (event->destroy)
 		event->destroy(event);
 
-	if (event->ctx)
-		put_ctx(event->ctx);
-
+	/*
+	 * Must be after ->destroy(), due to uprobe_perf_close() using
+	 * hw.target.
+	 */
 	if (event->hw.target)
 		put_task_struct(event->hw.target);
 
+	/*
+	 * perf_event_free_task() relies on put_ctx() being 'last', in particular
+	 * all task references must be cleaned up.
+	 */
+	if (event->ctx)
+		put_ctx(event->ctx);
+
 	exclusive_event_destroy(event);
 	module_put(event->pmu->module);
 
@@ -4650,8 +4658,17 @@ int perf_event_release_kernel(struct perf_event *event)
 	mutex_unlock(&event->child_mutex);
 
 	list_for_each_entry_safe(child, tmp, &free_list, child_list) {
+		void *var = &child->ctx->refcount;
+
 		list_del(&child->child_list);
 		free_event(child);
+
+		/*
+		 * Wake any perf_event_free_task() waiting for this event to be
+		 * freed.
+		 */
+		smp_mb(); /* pairs with wait_var_event() */
+		wake_up_var(var);
 	}
 
 no_ctx:
@@ -11527,11 +11544,11 @@ static void perf_free_event(struct perf_event *event,
 }
 
 /*
- * Free an unexposed, unused context as created by inheritance by
- * perf_event_init_task below, used by fork() in case of fail.
+ * Free a context as created by inheritance by perf_event_init_task() below,
+ * used by fork() in case of fail.
  *
- * Not all locks are strictly required, but take them anyway to be nice and
- * help out with the lockdep assertions.
+ * Even though the task has never lived, the context and events have been
+ * exposed through the child_list, so we must take care tearing it all down.
  */
 void perf_event_free_task(struct task_struct *task)
 {
@@ -11561,7 +11578,23 @@ void perf_event_free_task(struct task_struct *task)
 			perf_free_event(event, ctx);
 
 		mutex_unlock(&ctx->mutex);
-		put_ctx(ctx);
+
+		/*
+		 * perf_event_release_kernel() could've stolen some of our
+		 * child events and still have them on its free_list. In that
+		 * case we must wait for these events to have been freed (in
+		 * particular all their references to this task must've been
+		 * dropped).
+		 *
+		 * Without this copy_process() will unconditionally free this
+		 * task (irrespective of its reference count) and
+		 * _free_event()'s put_task_struct(event->hw.target) will be a
+		 * use-after-free.
+		 *
+		 * Wait for all events to drop their context reference.
+		 */
+		wait_var_event(&ctx->refcount, refcount_read(&ctx->refcount) == 1);
+		put_ctx(ctx); /* must be last */
 	}
 }