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The Coverity Prevent Version 5.0 CHECKED_RETURN, NULL_RETURNS, and REVERSE_INULL, FORWARD_NULL checkers can all find violations of this rule. The CHECKED_RETURN finds instances where a pointer is checked against NULL and then later dereferenced. The NULL_RETURNS checker identifies functions that can return a null pointer but are not checked. The REVERSE_INULL identifies code that dereferences a pointer and then checks the pointer against NULL. The FORWARD_NULL checker can find the instances where NULL is explicitly dereferenced or a pointer is checked against null but then dereferenced anyway. Coverity Prevent cannot discover all violations of this rule, so further verification is necessary.
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