Our website uses cookies to enhance your browsing experience.
Accept
to the top
>
>
>
V518. The 'malloc' function allocates s…
menu mobile close menu
Analyzer diagnostics
General Analysis (C++)
General Analysis (C#)
General Analysis (Java)
Micro-Optimizations (C++)
Diagnosis of 64-bit errors (Viva64, C++)
Customer specific requests (C++)
MISRA errors
AUTOSAR errors
OWASP errors (C++)
OWASP errors (C#)
Problems related to code analyzer
Additional information
toggle menu Contents

V518. The 'malloc' function allocates suspicious amount of memory calculated by 'strlen(expr)'. Perhaps the correct expression is strlen(expr) + 1.

Nov 19 2010

The analyzer found a potential error related to allocating insufficient amount of memory. The string's length is calculated in code and the memory buffer of a corresponding size is allocated but the terminal '\0' is not allowed for.

Consider this example:

char *p = (char *)malloc(strlen(src));
strcpy(p, src);

In this case, it is just +1 which is missing. The correct version is:

char *p = (char *)malloc(strlen(src) + 1);
strcpy(p, src);

Here is another example of incorrect code detected by the analyzer in one application:

if((t=(char *)realloc(next->name, strlen(name+1))))
{
  next->name=t;
  strcpy(next->name,name);
}

The programmer was inattentive and made a mistake when writing the right bracket ')'. As a result, we will allocate 2 bytes less memory than necessary. This is the correct code:

if((t=(char *)realloc(next->name, strlen(name)+1)))

This diagnostic is classified as:

You can look at examples of errors detected by the V518 diagnostic.

close form

Fill out the form in 2 simple steps below:

Your contact information:

Step 1
Congratulations! This is your promo code!

Desired license type:

Step 2
Team license
Enterprise license
** By clicking this button you agree to our Privacy Policy statement
close form
Request our prices
New License
License Renewal
--Select currency--
USD
EUR
* By clicking this button you agree to our Privacy Policy statement

close form
Free PVS‑Studio license for Microsoft MVP specialists
* By clicking this button you agree to our Privacy Policy statement

close form
To get the licence for your open-source project, please fill out this form
* By clicking this button you agree to our Privacy Policy statement

close form
I am interested to try it on the platforms:
* By clicking this button you agree to our Privacy Policy statement

close form
check circle
Message submitted.

Your message has been sent. We will email you at


If you do not see the email in your inbox, please check if it is filtered to one of the following folders:

  • Promotion
  • Updates
  • Spam