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Dereferencing a {{null}} pointer can lead to denial of service. For example, Java Web Start applications and applets particular to JDK version 1.6, prior to update 4, were affected by a bug that had some noteworthy security consequences. A {{NullPointerException}} was generated in some isolated cases when the application or applet attempted to establish an HTTPS connection with a server \[[SDN 2008|AA. Bibliography#SDN 08]\]. The failure to establish a secure HTTPS connection with the server caused a denial of service: clients were temporarily forced to use an insecure http channel for data exchange. In multithreaded programs, null pointer dereferences can violate cache coherency policies and can cause resource leaks. |
Guideline Recommendation | Severity | Likelihood | Remediation Cost | Priority | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
EXP12EXP11-J | low | likely | high | P3 | L3 |
Automated Detection
The Coverity Prevent Version 5.0 FORWARD_NULL checker can detect the instance where reference is checked against null but then dereferenced anyway.
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