The CERT C Secure Coding Standard provides rules and recommendations (collectively called guidelines) for secure coding in the C programming language. The goal of these rules and recommendations is to develop safe, reliable, and secure systems, for example by eliminating undefined behaviors that can lead to undefined program behaviors and exploitable vulnerabilities. Conformance to the coding rules defined in this standard are necessary (but not sufficient) to ensure the safety, reliability, and security of software systems developed in the C programming language. It is also necessary, for example, to have a safe and secure design. Safety-critical systems typically have stricter requirements than are imposed by this coding standard, for example requiring that all memory be statically allocated. However, the application of this coding standard will result in high-quality systems that are reliable, robust, and resistant to attack.
Each guideline consists of a title, a description, and a noncompliant code example and compliant solutions. The title is a concise, but sometimes imprecise, description of the guideline. The description specifies the normative requirements of the rule or recommendation. The noncompliant code examples are examples of code that would constitute a violation of the guideline. The accompanying compliant solutions demonstrate equivalent code that does not violate the guideline or any other rules or recommendations in this coding standard.
A well-documented and enforceable coding standard is an essential element of coding in the C programming language. Coding standards encourage programmers to follow a uniform set of rules determined by the requirements of the project and organization rather than by the programmer’s familiarity. Once established, these standards can be used as a metric to evaluate source code (using manual or automated processes).
CERT’s coding standards are being widely adopted by industry. Cisco Systems, Inc., announced its adoption of the CERT C Secure Coding Standard as a baseline programming standard in its product development in October 2011 at Cisco’s annual SecCon conference. Recently, Oracle has integrated all of CERT’s secure coding standards into its existing Secure Coding Standards. Note that this adoption is the most recent step of a long collaboration: CERT and Oracle previously worked together in authoring The CERT® Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java (Addison-Wesley, 2011).
