A tainted value is used as a size in a memory allocation.
A value is considered "tainted" if it comes into the program from outside, for example, through an input operation. Tainted values should be regarded with suspicion, because security attacks often involve a malicious user finding a way to get a strange value into a program entry point. In this case, the tainted value is used as an allocation size. This could potentially allow a malicious user to provoke a program to allocate a very large amount of memory. This could destabilize the application by creating a low memory condition. It could also provoke a null pointer dereference if calls to allocate storage do not check for failure (null result).
The checker removes the tainted attribute on a value if it sees evidence that the value is being examined before it is used.
ID |
Observation |
Description |
---|---|---|
1 |
Memory read |
The place the tainted value was used |
2 |
Call site |
The call from which the tainted value was obtained |
extern DoWork(int *p); int main(int argc, char **argv) { size_t size; int *p; size = atoi(argv[1]); // size is unvalidated value p = (int*) malloc(size); DoWork(p); }
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