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V598. The 'memset/memcpy' function is u…
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Analyzer diagnostics
General Analysis (C++)
General Analysis (C#)
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Diagnosis of micro-optimizations (C++)
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V598. The 'memset/memcpy' function is used to nullify/copy fields of 'Foo' class. Virtual table pointer will be damaged.

Dec 28 2011

The analyzer has detected that such low-level functions as memset() or memcpy() are used to handle a class. It is inadmissible when a class has pointer to a virtual method table. The memset()/memcpy() functions might rewrite virtual table pointer (VPTR), and the program behavior will become undefined.

Consider the following code sample.

class MyClass
{
  int A, B, C;
  char buf[100];
  MyClass();
  virtual ~MyClass() {}
};

MyClass::MyClass()
{
  memset(this, 0, sizeof(*this));
}

Note that there is a virtual destructor in the class. It means that the class has a virtual table pointer. The programmer was too lazy to clear the class members separately and used the memset() function for that purpose. It will spoil the VPTR, since the memset() function does not know anything about it.

This is the correct code:

MyClass:: MyClass() : A(0), B(0), C(0)
{
  memset(buf, 0, sizeof(buf));
}

This diagnostic is classified as:

  • CWE-665
  • CERT-EXP62-CPP
  • CERT-OOP57-CPP

You can look at examples of errors detected by the V598 diagnostic.