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Strings (both character and wide-character) are often subject to buffer overflows, which will overwrite the memory immediately past the string. Many rules warn against buffer overflows, including STR31-C. Guarantee that storage for strings has sufficient space for character data and the null terminator and VOID STR35-C. Do not copy data from an unbounded source to a fixed-length array. Sometimes the danger of buffer overflows can be minimized by ensuring that arranging memory such that data that might be corrupted by a buffer overflow is not sensitive.

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const size_t String_Size = 20;
struct node_s {
  struct node_s* next;
  char* name;
}

Exceptions

API01-C-EX1: Using a string before sensitive data such as pointers is permitted when it is not practical to segregate the strings from the sensitive data.

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const size_t String_Size = 20;
struct node_s {
  struct node_s* next;
  char name[String_Size];
}
struct node_s list[10];

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Risk Assessment

Failure to follow this recommendation can result in memory corruption from buffer overflows, which can easily corrupt data or yield remote code execution.

Automated Detection

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