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The successful completion or failure of each of the standard library functions listed in the following table shall be determined either by comparing the function’s return value with the value listed in the column labeled “Error Return” or by calling one of the library functions mentioned in the footnotes to the same column.

Setting errno is a POSIX [ISO/IEC 9945:2008] extension to the C Standard.  On error, posix_memalign() returns a value that corresponds to one of the constants defined in the <errno.h> header. The function does not set errno. The posix_memalign() function is optional and is not required to be provided by POSIX-conforming implementations.

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#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
 
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
  FILE *out;
  FILE *in;
  size_t size;
  char *ptr;
 
  if (argc != 2) {
    /* Handle error */
  }
 
  in = fmemopen(argv[1], strlen(argv[1]), "r");

  if (in == NULL){
    /* Handle error */
  }
  /* Use in */
 
  out = open_memstream(&ptr, &size);

  if (out == NULL){
    /* Handle error */
  }
  /* Use out */
  return 0;
}

Exceptions

ERR33POS54-C-EX1: This exception has been removed.

POS54-C-EX2: The exception from EXP12ERR33-C. Do not ignore values returned by functions still applies. If the return value is inconsequential or if any errors can be safely ignored, such as for functions called because of their side effects, the function should be explicitly cast to void to signify programmer intent.

ERR33-C-EX2: Ignore the return value of a function that cannot fail or whose return value cannot signify that an error condition need not be diagnosed. For example, strcpy() is one such function.

Return values from the following functions do not need to be checked because their historical use has overwhelmingly omitted error checking, and the consequences are not relevant to security.

Detect and handle standard library errors (that is ERR33-C-EX1) applies to this rule. See that exception for more information.

Risk Assessment

Failing to detect error conditions can lead to unpredictable results, including abnormal program termination and denial-of-service attacks or, in some situations, could even allow an attacker to run arbitrary code.

Automated Detection

Related Vulnerabilities

The vulnerability in Adobe Flash [VU#159523] arises because Flash neglects to check the return value from calloc(). Even when calloc() returns NULL, Flash writes to an offset from the return value. Dereferencing NULL usually results in a program crash, but dereferencing an offset from NULL allows an exploit to succeed without crashing the program.

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

Related Guidelines

Key here (explains table format and definitions)

Bibliography

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