CERT-MEM30-C_b
Synopsis
Do not access freed memory.
Enabled by default
Yes
Severity/Certainty
High/High

Full description
Evaluating a pointer-including dereferencing the pointer, using it as an operand of an arithmetic operation, type casting it, and using it as the right-hand side of an assignment-into memory that has been deallocated by a memory management function is undefined behavior. This check is identical to MISRAC2012-Dir-4.13_e, MISRAC2012-Rule-1.3_p, SEC-BUFFER-use-after-free-some, MEM-use-free-some.
Coding standards
- CERT MEM30-C
Do not access freed memory
- CWE 416
Use After Free
- CWE 456
Missing Initialization
- CWE 672
Operation on a Resource after Expiration or Release
- CWE 758
Reliance on Undefined, Unspecified, or Implementation-Defined Behavior
- MISRA C:2012 Dir-4.13
(Advisory) Functions which are designed to provide operations on a resource should be called in an appropriate sequence
- MISRA C:2012 Rule-1.3
(Required) There shall be no occurrence of undefined or critical unspecified behaviour
Code examples
The following code example fails the check and will give a warning:
#include <stdlib.h>
void example(void) {
int *x;
x = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int));
free(x);
if (rand()) {
x = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int));
}
else {
/* x not reallocated along this path */
}
(*x)++;
}
The following code example passes the check and will not give a warning about this issue:
#include <stdlib.h>
void example(void) {
int *x;
x = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int));
free(x);
x = (int *)malloc(sizeof(int));
*x++;
}