Modifying a variable through a pointer of an incompatible type can lead to unpredictable results. This is often caused by a violation of aliasing rules. C11, Section 6.5, paragraph 7 [ISO/IEC 9899:19992011] specifies those circumstances in which an object may or may not be aliased.
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Recommendation | Severity | Likelihood | Remediation Cost | Priority | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
EXP39-C | medium | unlikely | high | P2 | L3 |
Related Guidelines
ISO/IEC 9899:19992011 Section 6.5, "Expressions"
ISO/IEC TR 17961 Accessing an object through a pointer to an incompatible type [ptrcomp]
Bibliography
GCC Known Bugs C bugs, Aliasing issues while casting to incompatible types
GCC Manual
[Walfridsson 2003] Krister Walfridsson. Aliasing, pointer casts and gcc 3.3 Aliasing issue. August, 2003.
[Acton 2006] Mike Acton. Understanding Strict Aliasing. June 01, 2006.
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