Free of Pointer not at Start of Buffer
Weakness ID: 761 (Weakness Variant)Status: Incomplete
+ Description

Description Summary

The application calls free() on a pointer to a memory resource that was allocated on the heap, but the pointer is not at the start of the buffer.

Extended Description

This can cause the application to crash, or in some cases, modify critical program variables or execute code.

This weakness often occurs when the memory is allocated explicitly on the heap with one of the malloc() family functions and free() is called, but pointer arithmetic has caused the pointer to be in the interior or end of the buffer.

+ Time of Introduction
  • Implementation
+ Demonstrative Examples

Example 1

In this example, the programmer dynamically allocates a buffer to hold a string and then searches for a specific character. After completing the search, the programmer attempts to release the allocated memory and return SUCCESS or FAILURE to the caller. Note: for simplification, this example uses a hard-coded "Search Me!" string and a constant string length of 20.

(Bad Code)
Example Language: C 
#define SUCCESS (1)
#define FAILURE (0)

int contains_char(char c){
char *str;
str = (char*)malloc(20*sizeof(char));
strcpy(str, "Search Me!");
while( *str != NULL){
if( *str == c ){
/* matched char, free string and return success */
free(str);
return SUCCESS;
}
/* didn't match yet, increment pointer and try next char */
str = str + 1;
}
/* we did not match the char in the string, free mem and return failure */
free(str);
return FAILURE;
}

However, if the character is not at the beginning of the string, or if it is not in the string at all, then the pointer will not be at the start of the buffer when the programmer frees it.

Instead of freeing the pointer in the middle of the buffer, the programmer can use an indexing pointer to step through the memory or abstract the memory calculations by using array indexing.

(Good Code)
Example Language: C 
#define SUCCESS (1)
#define FAILURE (0)

int cointains_char(char c){
char *str;
int i = 0;
str = (char*)malloc(20*sizeof(char));
strcpy(str, "Search Me!");
while( i < strlen(str) ){
if( str[i] == c ){
/* matched char, free string and return success */
free(str);
return SUCCESS;
}
/* didn't match yet, increment pointer and try next char */
i = i + 1;
}
/* we did not match the char in the string, free mem and return failure */
free(str);
return FAILURE;
}

Example 2

This code attempts to tokenize a string and place it into an array using the strsep function, which inserts a \0 byte in place of whitespace or a tab character. After finishing the loop, each string in the AP array points to a location within the input string.

(Bad Code)
Example Language: C 
char **ap, *argv[10], *inputstring;
for (ap = argv; (*ap = strsep(&inputstring, " \t")) != NULL;)
if (**ap != '\0')
if (++ap >= &argv[10])
break;
/.../
free(ap[4]);

Since strsep is not allocating any new memory, freeing an element in the middle of the array is equivalent to free a pointer in the middle of inputstring.

Example 3

Consider the following code in the context of a parsing application to extract commands out of user data. The intent is to parse each command and add it to a queue of commands to be executed, discarding each malformed entry.

(Bad Code)
Example Language: C 
//hardcode input length for simplicity
char* input = (char*) malloc(40*sizeof(char));
char *tok;
char* sep = " \t";

get_user_input( input );

/* The following loop will parse and process each token in the input string */
tok = strtok( input, sep);
while( NULL != tok ){
if( isMalformed( tok ) ){
/* ignore and discard bad data */
free( tok );
}
else{
add_to_command_queue( tok );
}
tok = strtok( NULL, sep));
}

While the above code attempts to free memory associated with bad commands, since the memory was all allocated in one chunk, it must all be freed together.

One way to fix this problem would be to copy the commands into a new memory location before placing them in the queue. Then, after all commands have been processed, the memory can safely be freed.

(Good Code)
Example Language: C 
//hardcode input length for simplicity
char* input = (char*) malloc(40*sizeof(char));
char *tok, *command;
char* sep = " \t";

get_user_input( input );

/* The following loop will parse and process each token in the input string */
tok = strtok( input, sep);
while( NULL != tok ){
if( !isMalformed( command ) ){
/* copy and enqueue good data */
command = (char*) malloc( (strlen(tok) + 1) * sizeof(char) );
strcpy( command, tok );
add_to_command_queue( command );
}
tok = strtok( NULL, sep));
}

free( input )
+ Potential Mitigations

Phase: Implementation

When utilizing pointer arithmetic to traverse a buffer, use a separate variable to track progress through memory and preserve the originally allocated address for later freeing.

Phase: Implementation

When programming in C++, consider using smart pointers provided by the boost library to help correctly and consistently manage memory.

Phases: Implementation; Operation

Use a library that contains built-in protection against free of invalid pointers, such as glibc.

Phase: Architecture and Design

Use a language that provides abstractions for memory allocation and deallocation.

Phase: Testing

Use a tool that dynamically detects memory management problems, such as valgrind.

+ Relationships
NatureTypeIDNameView(s) this relationship pertains toView(s)
ChildOfCategoryCategory399Resource Management Errors
Development Concepts (primary)699
ChildOfWeakness BaseWeakness Base763Release of Invalid Pointer or Reference
Research Concepts (primary)1000
+ Affected Resources
  • Memory
+ References
+ Maintenance Notes

Currently, CWE-763 is the parent, however it may be desirable to have an intermediate parent which is not function-specific, similar to how CWE-762 is an intermediate parent between CWE-763 and CWE-590.

+ Content History
Submissions
Submission DateSubmitterOrganizationSource
2009-05-08Internal CWE Team
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