FIO38-C. Do not copy a FILE object

According to the C Standard, 7.23.3, paragraph 6 [ISO/IEC 9899:2024],

The address of the FILE object used to control a stream may be significant; a copy of a FILE object is not required to serve in place of the original.

Consequently, do not copy a FILE object.

Noncompliant Code Example

This noncompliant code example can fail because a by-value copy of stdout is being used in the call to fputs():

#include <stdio.h>
 
int main(void) {
  FILE my_stdout = *stdout;
  if (fputs("Hello, World!\n", &my_stdout) == EOF) {
    /* Handle error */
  }
  return 0;
}

When compiled under Microsoft Visual Studio 2013 and run on Windows, this noncompliant example results in an "access violation" at runtime.

Compliant Solution

In this compliant solution, a copy of the stdout pointer to the FILE object is used in the call to fputs():

#include <stdio.h>
 
int main(void) {
  FILE *my_stdout = stdout;
  if (fputs("Hello, World!\n", my_stdout) == EOF) {
    /* Handle error */
  }
  return 0;
}

Risk Assessment

Using a copy of a FILE object in place of the original may result in a crash, which can be used in a denial-of-service attack.

Automated Detection

Related Vulnerabilities

Search for vulnerabilities resulting from the violation of this rule on the CERT website.

Related Guidelines

Key here (explains table format and definitions)

Bibliography