FIO00-C. Take care when creating format strings

The formatted IO functions fprintf(), printf(), sprintf(), snprintf(), vfprintf(), vprintf(), vsprintf(), and vsnprintf() convert, format, and print their arguments under control of a format string. Section 7.21.6.1 of the C standard [ISO/IEC 9899:2011], states:

The format shall be a multibyte character sequence, beginning and ending in its initial shift state. The format is composed of zero or more directives: ordinary multibyte characters (not %), which are copied unchanged to the output stream; and conversion specifications, each of which results in fetching zero or more subsequent arguments, converting them, if applicable, according to the corresponding conversion specifier, and then writing the result to the output stream.

Each conversion specification is introduced by the % character followed (in order) by

• zero or more flags (in any order), which modify the meaning of the conversion specification
• an optional minimum field width
• an optional precision that gives the minimum number of digits to appear for certain conversion specifiers
• an optional length modifier that specifies the size of the argument
• a conversion specifier character that indicates the type of conversion to be applied

Common mistakes in creating format strings include

• providing insufficient arguments for the format string
• using invalid conversion specifiers
• using a flag character that is incompatible with the conversion specifier
• using a length modifier that is incompatible with the conversion specifier
• mismatching the argument type and conversion specifier
• using an argument of type other than int for width or precision

The following table summarizes C-compliant conversion specifiers along with the flag characters valid for each specification (the apostrophe ('), -, +, the space character, and # in columns 2 through 5) and length modifiers (h, hh, l, ll, j, z, t, and L in columns 6 through 13) and the type of the expected argument. Valid and meaningful combinations of a conversion specification, flag character, and length modifier is denoted by the symbol in the corresponding cell or by the name of the type argument affected by the length modifier. Valid combinations that have no effect are denoted by N/E. Using a combination of a conversion specification, flag character, and length modifier denoted by the symbol or a specification not listed in the table, or using an argument of an unexpected type, may result in undefined behavior. See undefined behaviors 153, 157, 158, 161, and 162 in Annex J of C11.

Legend:

• SPACE—the space (' ') character
• N/E—No effect
• NTBS—char* argument pointing to a null-terminated byte string
• NTWS—wchar_t* argument pointing to a null-terminated wide-character string
• XSI—ISO/IEC 9945-2003 XSI extension

Noncompliant Code Example

Mismatches between arguments and conversion specifications may result in undefined behavior. Many compilers can diagnose type mismatches in formatted output function invocations.

const char *error_msg = "Resource not available to user.";
int error_type = 3;
/* ... */
printf("Error (type %s): %d\n", error_type, error_msg);

Compliant Solution

This compliant solution ensures that the format arguments match their respective format specifications.

const char *error_msg = "Resource not available to user.";
int error_type = 3;
/* ... */
printf("Error (type %d): %s\n", error_type, error_msg);

Noncompliant Code Example

The width and precision arguments to printf() format directives must be of type int. Section 7.21.6.1 of the C standard [ISO/IEC 9899:2011], states:

A field width, or precision, or both, may be indicated by an asterisk ('*'). In this case, an argument of type int supplies the field width or precision.

Passing them as any other type leads to undefined behavior. In this noncompliant code example, the width and precision are specified using parameters declared to be of size_t type. These are unsigned types that may not be the same size as int.

int print_int(int i, size_t width, size_t prec) {
  int n;

  n = printf("%*.*d", width, prec, i);

  return n;
}

Compliant Solution

In this compliant solution, the field width and precision arguments to printf() format directives are of type int.

int print_int(int i, int width, int prec) {
  int n;

  n = printf("%*.*d", width, prec, i);

  return n;
}

Risk Assessment

In most cases, incorrectly specified format strings will result in abnormal program termination.

Automated Detection

Related Vulnerabilities

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

Related Guidelines

CERT C++ Secure Coding Standard: FIO00-CPP. Take care when creating format strings

ISO/IEC 9899:2011 Section 7.21.6.1, "The fprintf function"

ISO/IEC TR 17961 (Draft) Using invalid format strings [invfmtstr]

MITRE CWE: CWE-686, "Function call with incorrect argument type"

Bibliography