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The C Standard, 6.7.3.2.1, paragraph 18 20 [ISO/IEC 9899:20112024], says:

As a special case, the last element of a structure with more than one named member may have an incomplete array type; this is called a flexible array member. In most situations, the flexible array member is ignored. In particular, the size of the structure is as if the flexible array member were omitted except that it may have more trailing padding than the omission would imply.

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#include <stdlib.h>
 
struct flex_array_struct {
  size_t num;
  int data[];
};
 
void func(void) {
  struct flex_array_struct *flex_struct;
  size_t array_size = 4;

  /* Dynamically allocate memory for the struct */
  flex_struct = (struct flex_array_struct *)malloc(
    sizeof(struct flex_array_struct)
    + sizeof(int) * array_size);
  if (flex_sructstruct == NULL) {
    /* Handle error */
  }

  /* Initialize structure */
  flex_struct->num = array_size;

  for (size_t i = 0; i < array_size; ++i) {
    flex_struct->data[i] = 0;
  }
}

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Failure to use structures with flexible array members correctly can result in undefined behavior. 

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CERT-CWE Mapping Notes

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CWE-401 and MEM33-CPP

There is no longer a C++ rule for MEM33-CPP. (In fact, all C++ rules from 30-50 are gone, because we changed the numbering system to be 50-99 for C++ rules.)

Bibliography

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