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Do not invoke realloc() to modify the size of allocated objects that have stricter alignment requirements than those guaranteed by malloc(). Storage allocated by a call to the standard aligned_alloc() function, for example, can have stricter than normal alignment requirements. The C standard requires only that a pointer returned by realloc() be suitably aligned so that it may be assigned to a pointer to any type of object with a fundamental alignment requirement.

Noncompliant Code Example

This noncompliant code example returns a pointer to allocated memory that has been aligned to a 4096-byte boundary.  If the resize argument to the realloc() function is larger than the object referenced by ptr, then realloc() will allocate new memory that is suitably aligned so that it may be assigned to a pointer to any type of object with a fundamental alignment requirement but may not preserve the stricter alignment of the original object.

#include <stdlib.h>
 
void func(void) {
  size_t resize = 1024;
  size_t alignment = 1 << 12;
  int *ptr;
  int *ptr1;
  
  if (NULL == (ptr = (int *)aligned_alloc(alignment, sizeof(int)))) {
    /* Handle error */
  }

  if (NULL == (ptr1 = (int *)realloc(ptr, resize))) {
    /* Handle error */
  }
}

Implementation Details

When compiled with GCC 4.1.2 and run on the x86_64 Red Hat Linux platform, the following code produces the following output:

CODE

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>

int main(void) {
  size_t  size = 16;
  size_t resize = 1024;
  size_t align = 1 << 12;
  int *ptr;
  int *ptr1;

  if (posix_memalign((void **)&ptr, align , size) != 0) {
    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
  }

  printf("memory aligned to %zu bytes\n", align);
  printf("ptr = %p\n\n", ptr);

  if ((ptr1 = (int*) realloc((int *)ptr, resize)) == NULL) {
    exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
  }

  puts("After realloc(): \n");
  printf("ptr1 = %p\n", ptr1);

  free(ptr1);
  return 0;
}

OUTPUT

memory aligned to 4096 bytes
ptr = 0x1621b000

After realloc():
ptr1 = 0x1621a010

ptr1 is no longer aligned to 4096 bytes.

Compliant Solution

This compliant solution  allocates resize bytes of new memory with the same alignment as the old memory, copies the original memory content, and then frees the old memory. This solution has implementation-defined behavior because it depends on whether extended alignments in excess of _Alignof (max_align_t) are supported and the contexts in which they are supported. If not supported, the behavior of this compliant solution is undefined.

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
 
void func(void) {
  size_t resize = 1024;
  size_t alignment = 1 << 12;
  int *ptr;
  int *ptr1;

  if (NULL == (ptr = (int *)aligned_alloc(alignment,
                                          sizeof(int)))) {
    /* Handle error */
  }

  if (NULL == (ptr1 = (int *)aligned_alloc(alignment,
                                           resize))) {
    /* Handle error */
  }
  
  if (NULL == memcpy(ptr1, ptr, sizeof(int))) {
    /* Handle error */
  }
  
  free(ptr);
}

Compliant Solution (Windows)

Windows defines the _aligned_malloc() function to allocate memory on a specified alignment boundary.  The _aligned_realloc() [MSDN] can be used to change the size of this memory. This compliant solution demonstrates one such usage:

#include <malloc.h>

void func(void) {
  size_t alignment = 1 << 12;
  int *ptr;
  int *ptr1;

  /* Original allocation */
  if (NULL == (ptr = (int *)_aligned_malloc(sizeof(int),
                                            alignment))) {
    /* Handle error */
}

  /* Reallocation */
  if (NULL == (ptr1 = (int *)_aligned_realloc(ptr, 1024,
                                              alignment))) {
    _aligned_free(ptr);
    /* Handle error */
  }

  _aligned_free(ptr1);
}

The size and alignment arguments for _aligned_malloc() are provided in reverse order of the C Standard aligned_alloc() function.

Risk Assessment

Improper alignment can lead to arbitrary memory locations being accessed and written to

System-allocation function: A function which yields a pointer that may be used to access a particular object or an array of such objects in the space allocated (until the space is explicitly deallocated). The functions calloc(), malloc(), realloc() and aligned_alloc() are system-allocation functions.

System-deallocation function: A function which causes space to be deallocated, that is, made available for further allocation. The function free is a system-deallocation function.

Any other system-allocation and system-deallocation functions are implementation-defined.

void *realloc (void *ptr, size_t size);

The function realloc is a system-allocation function and a system-deallocation function. The realloc function deallocates an old object pointed to by ptr and returns a pointer to a new object that has the specified size. The contents of the new object shall be the same as that of the old object prior to deallocation, up to the minimum of the new and old sizes and the remaining bytes have indeterminate values.

The realloc function behaves like the malloc function if ptr is null. Otherwise, if ptr does not match a pointer earlier returned by the calloc, malloc, or realloc function, or if the space has been deallocated by a call to the free or realloc function, the behavior is undefined.

If ptr was allocated with an alignment greater than alignof(max_align_t), the behavior is undefined.

Non- Compliant Code

The non-compliant code shows an example where ptr is aligned to an alignment greater than the maximum alignment possible:

size_t size = 16;
size_t alignment = 2<<29;
float *ptr;
float *ptr1;

ptr = aligned_alloc(align , size);
ptr1 = realloc(ptr, size);

The realloc function has an undefined behavior as the alignement is maximum alignment possible.

Compliant Solution

The compliant solution shows an example where ptr is always aligned to an alignment less than the maximum alignment possible.

size_t size = 16;
size_t alignment = 2<<29;
float *ptr;
float *ptr1;

ptr = aligned_alloc(align , size);

if(align < MAX_ALIGN_T) {
ptr1 = realloc(ptr, size);
}

Risk Assessment

Improper alignment could lead to accessing arbitrary memory locations and write into it.

References

Automated Detection

Related Vulnerabilities

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

Bibliography

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Image Added Image Added Image AddedISO/IEC 9899:201x#[http://www.open-std.org/Jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n1401.pdf|http://www.open-std.org/Jtc1/sc22/wg14/www/docs/n1401.pdf]