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Upon failure, the malloc() function returns NULL. Failing to detect and properly handle this error condition appropriately can lead to abnormal and abrupt program termination.

/* ... */
size_t size = strlen(input_string);
if (size == SIZE_MAX) {
  /* Handle Error */
}
str = malloc(size+1);
if (str == NULL) {
  /* Handle Allocation Error */
}
strcpy(str, input_string);
/* ... */
free(str);

Non-Compliant Code Example (File Operations)

In this example, fopen() is used to open a file for reading. If fopen() is unable to open the file it returns a NULL pointer. Failing to detect and properly handle this error condition appropriately can lead to abnormal and abrupt program termination.

FILE fptr = fopen("MyFile.txt","r");

Compliant Solution (File Operations)

To correct this example, the return value of fopen() should be checked for NULL.

FILE fptr = fopen("MyFile.txt","r");
if (fptr == NULL) { 
   /* Handle error condition */
}

This example also applies to rule \[[FIO32-C. Detect and handle file operation errors]\].

References

Failing to detect error condition can result in unexpected program behavior, and possibly abnormal program termination resulting in a denial-of-service condition.

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