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• Calling the instance method of a null object
• Accessing or modifying the field of a null object
• Taking the length of null as if it were an array
• Accessing or modifying the elements of null as if it were an array
• Throwing null as if it were a Throwable value

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This noncompliant example shows a bug in Tomcat version 4.1.24, initially discovered by Reasoning [Reasoning 2003]. The cardinality() method was designed to return the number of occurrences of object obj in collection col. One valid use of the cardinality() method is to determine how many objects in the collection are null. However, because membership in the collection is checked using the expression obj.equals(elt), a null pointer dereference is guaranteed whenever obj is null and elt is not null.

public static int cardinality(Object obj, final Collection<?> col) {
  int count = 0;
  if (col == null) {
    return count;
  }
  Iterator<?> it = col.iterator();
  while (it.hasNext()) {
    Object elt = it.next();
    if ((null == obj && null == elt) || obj.equals(elt)) {  // Null pointer dereference
      count++;
    }
  }
  return count;
}

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Method isProperName () is noncompliant because it may be called with a null argument, resulting in a null pointer dereference.

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The calling method, testString(), guarantees that isProperName () is always called with a valid string reference.  As As a result, the class conforms with this rule even though a public isProperName() method would not. Guarantees of this sort can be used to eliminate null pointer dereferences.

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The Optional class contains methods that can be used to make programs shorter and more intuitive [ Urma 2014 ].

Exceptions

EXP01-J-EX0: A method may dereference an object-typed parameter without guarantee that it is a valid object reference provided that the method documents that it (potentially) throws a NullPointerException, either via the throws clause of the method or in the method comments. However, this exception should be relied on sparingly.

Risk Assessment

Dereferencing a null pointer can lead to a denial of service. In multithreaded programs, null pointer dereferences can violate cache coherency policies and can cause resource leaks.

Automated Detection

Null pointer dereferences can happen in path-dependent ways. Limitations of automatic detection tools can require manual inspection of code [Hovemeyer 2007] to detect instances of null pointer dereferences. Annotations for method parameters that must be non-null can reduce the need for manual inspection by assisting automated null pointer dereference detection; use of these annotations is strongly encouraged.

Related Vulnerabilities

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. In some isolated cases, the application or applet's attempt to establish an HTTPS connection with a server generated a NullPointerException [SDN 2008]. The resulting 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.

Related Guidelines

Android Implementation Details

Android applications are more sensitive to NullPointerException because of the constraint of the limited mobile device memory. Static members or members of an Activity may become null when memory runs out.

Bibliography

[API 2006]	Method doPrivileged()
[API 2014]	Class java.util.Optional
[Hovemeyer 2007]

 

[Reasoning 2003]	"Defect ID 00-0001" "Null Pointer Dereference"
[SDN 2008]	Bug ID 6514454
[ Seacord 2015 ]	Image Modified EXP01-J. Never dereference null pointers LiveLesson
[Urma 2014]	Tired of Null Pointer Exceptions? Consider Using Java SE 8's Optional!

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