Non-initialized pointer

Pointer not initialized before dereference

Description

This defect occurs when a pointer is not assigned an address before dereference.

Risk

Unless a pointer is explicitly assigned an address, it points to an unpredictable location.

Fix

The fix depends on the root cause of the defect. For instance, you assigned an address to the pointer but the assignment is unreachable.

Often the result details (or source code tooltips in Polyspace as You Code) show a sequence of events that led to the defect. You can implement the fix on any event in the sequence. If the result details do not show this event history, you can search for previous references of variables relevant to the defect using right-click options in the source code and find related events. See also Interpret Bug Finder Results in Polyspace Desktop User Interface or Interpret Bug Finder Results in Polyspace Access Web Interface (Polyspace Access).

See examples of fixes below. It is a good practice to initialize a pointer to NULL when declaring the pointer.

If you do not want to fix the issue, add comments to your result or code to avoid another review. See:

• Address Results in Polyspace User Interface Through Bug Fixes or Justifications if you review results in the Polyspace user interface.

• Address Results in Polyspace Access Through Bug Fixes or Justifications (Polyspace Access) if you review results in a web browser.

• Annotate Code and Hide Known or Acceptable Results if you review results in an IDE.

Extend Checker

If a pointer in your code is non-initialized only for certain system input values, you can see one possible combination of input values causing the defect. See Extend Bug Finder Checkers to Find Defects from Specific System Input Values.

Examples

Non-initialized pointer error

#include <stdlib.h>

int* assign_pointer(int* prev)
{
    int j = 42;
    int* pi;

    if (prev == NULL) 
      {
        pi = (int*)malloc(sizeof(int));
        if (pi == NULL) return NULL;
      }

    *pi = j;                    
    /* Defect: Writing to uninitialized pointer */

    return pi;
}

If prev is not NULL, the pointer pi is not assigned an address. However, pi is dereferenced on every execution paths, irrespective of whether prev is NULL or not.

Correction — Initialize Pointer on Every Execution Path

One possible correction is to assign an address to pi when prev is not NULL.

#include <stdlib.h>

int* assign_pointer(int* prev)
{
    int j = 42;
    int* pi;

    if (prev == NULL) 
       {
        pi = (int*)malloc(sizeof(int));
        if (pi == NULL) return NULL;
       } 
    /* Fix: Initialize pi in branches of if statement  */
    else 
        pi = prev;              
    

    *pi = j;

    return pi;
}

Result Information

Group: Data flow

Language: C | C++

Default: On

Command-Line Syntax: NON_INIT_PTR

Impact: High

Version History

Introduced in R2013b