diff --git a/drivers/staging/greybus/light.c b/drivers/staging/greybus/light.c
index e509fdc715db..38c233a706c4 100644
--- a/drivers/staging/greybus/light.c
+++ b/drivers/staging/greybus/light.c
@@ -1008,14 +1008,18 @@ static int gb_lights_light_config(struct gb_lights *glights, u8 id)
 	if (!strlen(conf.name))
 		return -EINVAL;
 
-	light->channels_count = conf.channel_count;
 	light->name = kstrndup(conf.name, NAMES_MAX, GFP_KERNEL);
 	if (!light->name)
 		return -ENOMEM;
-	light->channels = kcalloc(light->channels_count,
+	light->channels = kcalloc(conf.channel_count,
 				  sizeof(struct gb_channel), GFP_KERNEL);
 	if (!light->channels)
 		return -ENOMEM;
+	/*
+	 * Publish channels_count only after channels allocation so cleanup
+	 * doesn't walk a NULL channels pointer on allocation failure.
+	 */
+	light->channels_count = conf.channel_count;
 
 	/* First we collect all the configurations for all channels */
 	for (i = 0; i < light->channels_count; i++) {