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Code that is never executed is known as dead code. Typically, the presence of dead code indicates that a logic error has occurred as a result of changes to a program or the program's environment. Dead code is usually optimized out of a program during compilation. However, to improve readability and ensure that logic errors are resolved, dead code should be identified, understood, and eliminated.

This recommendation is related to MSC12-C. Detect and remove code that has no effect or is never executed.

Noncompliant Code Example

This noncompliant code example demonstrates how dead code can be introduced into a program [Fortify 2006]. The second conditional statement, if (s), will never evaluate true because it requires that s not be assigned NULL, and the only path where s can be assigned a non-NULL null value ends with a return statement.

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In this example, the strlen() function is used to limit the number of times the function strings_loop() will iterate. The conditional statement inside the loop evaluates to true when the current character in the string is the null terminator. However, because strlen() returns the number of characters that precede the null terminator, the conditional statement never evaluates true.

int strings_loop(char *strs) {
    size_t i;
    size_t len = strlen(strs);
    for (i=0; i < len; i++) {
        /* ... */
	  if (strs[i] == '\0') {
	    /* This code is never reached */
      }
    }
    return 0;
}

Compliant Solution

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int strings_loop(char *strs) {
    size_t i;
    size_t len = strlen(strs);
    for (i=0; i < len; i++) {
        /* ... */
	  if (strs[i+1] == '\0') {
	    /* This code is now reached */
      }
    }
    return 0;
}

Exceptions

typedef enum { Red, Green, Blue } Color;
const char* f(Color c) {
  switch (c) {
    case Red: return "Red";
    case Green: return "Green";
    case Blue: return "Blue";
    default: return "Unknown color";   /* notNot dead code */
  }
}

void g() {
  Color unknown = (Color)123;
  puts(f(unknown));
}

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The presence of dead code may indicate logic errors that can lead to unintended program behavior. The ways in which dead code can be introduced into a program and the effort required to remove it can be complex. As a result, resolving dead code can be an in-depth process requiring significant analysis.

Automated Detection

Related Vulnerabilities

Search for vulnerabilities resulting from the violation of this rule on the CERT website.

CVE-2014-1266 results from a violation of this rule. There is a spurious goto fail statement on line 631 of sslKeyExchange.c. This goto statement gets executed unconditionally, even though it is indented as if it were part of the preceding if statement. As a result, the call to sslRawVerify() (which would perform the actual signature verification) becomes dead code.  [ImperialViolet 2014]

Related Guidelines

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MISRA Rule 2.4

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Bibliography

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