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Casting pointers or references to incomplete classes can result in bad addresses. Deleting a pointer to an incomplete class results in undefined behavior if the class has a nontrivial destructor. Doing so can cause program termination, a runtime signal, or resource leaks.
Rule | Severity | Likelihood | Remediation Cost | Priority | Level |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
EXP57-CPP | Medium | Unlikely | Medium | P4 | L3 |
Automated Detection
Tool | Version | Checker | Description | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Astrée |
| delete-with-incomplete-type | |||||||
| Coverity | 6.5 | DELETE_VOID | Fully implemented | ||||||
| Clang |
| -Wdelete-incomplete |
| CodeSonar |
| LANG.CAST.PC.INC | Conversion: pointer to incomplete | ||||||
| Helix QAC |
| C++3112 | |||||||
| Klocwork |
| CERT.EXPR.DELETE_PTR.INCOMPLETE_TYPE | |||||||
| LDRA tool suite |
| 169 S, 554 S | Enhanced Enforcement | ||||||
| Parasoft C/C++test |
| CERT_CPP-EXP57-a | Do not delete objects with incomplete class at the point of deletion | |||||||
| Parasoft Insure++ | Runtime detection | ||||||||
| Polyspace Bug Finder |
| CERT C++: EXP57-CPP | Checks for conversion or deletion of incomplete class pointer | ||||||
| RuleChecker |
| delete-with-incomplete-type |
Related Vulnerabilities
Search for vulnerabilities resulting from the violation of this rule on the CERT website.
Bibliography
| [Dewhurst 2002] | Gotcha #39, "Casting Incomplete Types" |
| [ISO/IEC 14882-2014] | Subclause 4.10, "Pointer Conversions" |
| [Sutter 2000] | "Compiler Firewalls and the Pimpl Idiom" |
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