Use type definitions (typedef) to improve code readability.

Non-Compliant Code Example

The following declaration of the signal() function does not make use of typedef names and is consequently hard to read.

void (*signal(int, void (*)(int)))(int);

Compliant Solution

This compliant solution makes use of typedef names to specify exactly the same type as in the non-compliant coding example.

typedef void (*SighandlerType)(int signum);
extern SighandlerType signal(int signum, SighandlerType handler);

Risk Assessment

Code readability is important for discovering and eliminating vulnerabilities.

Recommendation

Severity

Likelihood

Remediation Cost

Priority

Level

DCL05-A

1 (low)

1 (unlikely)

2 (medium)

P2

L3

Automated Detection

The LDRA tool suite V 7.6.0 is able to detect violations of this recommendation.

Related Vulnerabilities

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

References

\[[ISO/IEC 9899-1999|AA. C References#ISO/IEC 9899-1999]\] Section 6.7.7, "Type definitions"
\[[ISO/IEC PDTR 24772|AA. C References#ISO/IEC PDTR 24772]\] "BRS Leveraging human experience"

DCL04-A. Avoid declaring more than one variable per declaration      02. Declarations and Initialization (DCL)       DCL06-A. Use meaningful symbolic constants to represent literal values in program logic