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While at first look this code appears correct and that it will prevent overflowing the allocated buffer, in fact buf + sizeof(buf) returns a value corresponding to a region in memory beyond the allocated buffer. This is due to buf being an int pointer and the result of sizeof(buf) getting multiplied by sizeof(int) accordingly. Thus, this code is vulnerable to buffer overflow.

Compliant Code Examples

1) 

Code Block
bgColor#CCCCFF
int buf[BUF_LEN];
int *buf_ptr = buf;


while (havedata() && buf_ptr < buf[BUF_LEN-1])
{
    *buf_ptr = parseint(getdata());
    buf_ptr++;
}

2)

Code Block
bgColor#CCCCFF
int buf[BUF_LEN];
int *buf_ptr = buf;
int i = 0;

while (havedata() && i < BUF_LEN)
{
    buf[i] = parseint(getdata());
    i++;
}

In these These corrected versions:

  1. eliminate the coding error of the original code
  2. maintain clarity of intended result while reading code

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