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A string literal is a sequence of zero or more multibyte characters enclosed in double-quotes ("xyz", for example). A wide string literal is the same, except prefixed by the letter L (L"xyz", for example).

At compile time, string literals are used to create an array of static duration and sufficient length to contain the character sequence and a null-termination character. It is unspecified whether these arrays are distinct. The behavior is undefined if a program attempts to modify string literals but frequently results in an access violation, as string literals are typically stored in read-only memory.

Do not attempt to modify a string literal. Use a named array of characters to obtain a modifiable string.

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Risk Assessment

Modifying string literals can lead to abnormal program termination and results in undefined behavior that can be used in denial-of-service attacks.

Rule

Severity

Likelihood

Remediation Cost

Priority

Level

STR30-C

1 (low)

3 (likely)

3 (low)

P9

L2

References

[[ISO/IEC 9899-1999]] Section 6.4.5, "String literals"
[[Summit 95]] comp.lang.c FAQ list - Question 1.32
[[Plum 91]] Topic 1.26, "strings - string literals"

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