INT11-C. Take care when converting from pointer to integer or integer to pointer

While it has been common practice to use integers and pointers interchangeably in C, pointer to integer and integer to pointer conversions are implementation-defined.

The only value that can be considered interchangeable between pointers and integers is the constant 0. Except in this case, conversions between integers and pointers may have undesired consequences depending on the implementation. According to C99 [[ISO/IEC 9899:1999]]:

An integer may be converted to any pointer type. Except as previously specified, the result is implementation-defined, might not be correctly aligned, might not point to an entity of the referenced type, and might be a trap representation.

Any pointer type may be converted to an integer type.  Except as previously specified, the result is implementation-defined.  If the result cannot be represented in the integer type, the behavior is undefined.  The result need not be in the range of values of any integer type.

These issues arise because the mapping functions for converting a pointer to an integer or an integer to a pointer must be consistent with the addressing structure of the execution environment.  For example, not all machines have a flat memory model.

It is sometimes necessary in low-level kernel or graphics code to access memory at a specific location, requiring a literal integer-to-pointer conversion, such as the following:

unsigned int *ptr = 0xcfcfcfcf;

These conversions are machine dependent and should only be coded when absolutely necessary.

Noncompliant Code Example

In this noncompliant code example, the pointer ptr is converted to an integer value.  Both a pointer and an int are assumed to be 32 bits.  The high-order nine bits of the number are used to hold a flag value, and the result is converted back into a pointer.

char *ptr;
unsigned int flag;
/* ... */
unsigned int number = (unsigned int)ptr;
number = (number & 0x7fffff) | (flag << 23);
ptr = (char *)number;

A similar scheme was used in early versions of Emacs, limiting its portability and preventing the ability to edit files larger than 8MB.

Please note that this noncompliant code example also violates EXP11-C. Do not apply operators expecting one type to data of an incompatible type.

Compliant Solution

Saving a few bits of storage is generally not as important as writing portable code. A struct can be used to provide room for both the pointer and the flag value.  This is portable to machines of different word sizes, both smaller and larger than 32 bits, and works even when pointers cannot be represented in any integer type.

struct ptrflag {
  char *pointer;
  unsigned int flag :9;
} ptrflag;

char *ptr;
unsigned int flag;
/* ... */
ptrflag.pointer = ptr;
ptrflag.flag = flag;

Risk Analysis

Converting from pointer to integer or vice versa results in unportable code and may create unexpected pointers to invalid memory locations.

Automated Detection

The LDRA tool suite V 7.6.0 can detect violations of this recommendation.

Compass/ROSE can detect violations of this recommendation.

Related Vulnerabilities

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

References

[[ISO/IEC 9899:1999]] Section 6.3.2.3, "Pointers"
[[ISO/IEC PDTR 24772]] "HFC Pointer casting and pointer type changes"
[[MITRE 07]] CWE ID 466, "Return of Pointer Value Outside of Expected Range," CWE ID 587, "Assignment of a Fixed Address to a Pointer"

      04. Integers (INT)