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A call to ZeroMemory() may be optimized out in a similar manner to a call to memset().

Compliant

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Solution (Windows)

This compliant solution uses a SecureZeroMemory() function provided by many versions of the Microsoft Visual Studio compiler. The documentation for the SecureZeroMemory() function guarantees that the compiler does not optimize out this call when zeroing memory.

void getPassword(void) {
  char pwd[64];
  if (retrievePassword(pwd, sizeof(pwd))) {
    /* Checking of password, secure operations, etc. */
  }
  SecureZeroMemory(pwd, sizeof(pwd));
}

Compliant Solution (Windows)

The #pragma directives in this compliant solution instruct the compiler to avoid optimizing the enclosed code. This #pragma directive is supported on some versions of Microsoft Visual Studio and could be supported on other compilers. Check compiler documentation to ensure its availability and its optimization guarantees.

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Related Vulnerabilities

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

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