MEM31-C. Free dynamically allocated memory when no longer needed

Before the lifetime of the last pointer that stores the return value of a call to a standard memory allocation function has ended, it must be matched by a call to free() with that pointer value.

Noncompliant Code Example

In this noncompliant example, the object allocated by the call to malloc() is not freed before the end of the lifetime of the last pointer text_buffer referring to the object:

#include <stdlib.h>
 
enum { BUFFER_SIZE = 32 };

int f(void) {
  char *text_buffer = (char *)malloc(BUFFER_SIZE); 
  if (text_buffer == NULL) {
    return -1;
  }
  return 0;
}

Compliant Solution

In this compliant solution, the pointer is deallocated with a call to free():

#include <stdlib.h>

enum { BUFFER_SIZE = 32 };

int f(void) {
  char *text_buffer = (char *)malloc(BUFFER_SIZE); 
  if (text_buffer == NULL) {
    return -1;
  }
 
  free(text_buffer);
  return 0;
}

Exceptions

MEM31-C-EX1: Allocated memory does not need to be freed if it is assigned to a pointer with static storage duration whose lifetime is the entire execution of a program. The following code example illustrates a pointer that stores the return value from malloc() in a static variable:

#include <stdlib.h>
 
enum { BUFFER_SIZE = 32 };

int f(void) {
  static char *text_buffer = NULL;
  if (text_buffer == NULL) {
    text_buffer = (char *)malloc(BUFFER_SIZE); 
    if (text_buffer == NULL) {
      return -1;
    }
  }
  return 0;
}

Risk Assessment

Failing to free memory can result in the exhaustion of system memory resources, which can lead to a denial-of-service attack.

Automated Detection

Related Vulnerabilities

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

Related Guidelines

Bibliography