CWE-416
Use After Free
AI Translation Available
The product reuses or references memory after it has been freed. At some point afterward, the memory may be allocated again and saved in another pointer, while the original pointer references a location somewhere within the new allocation. Any operations using the original pointer are no longer valid because the memory 'belongs' to the code that operates on the new pointer.
Status
stable
Abstraction
variant
Likelihood
high
Affected Platforms
C
C++
Technical Details
AI Translation
Common Consequences
integrity
availability
confidentiality
Impacts
modify memory
dos: crash, exit, or restart
execute unauthorized code or commands
Detection Methods
fuzzing
automated static analysis
Potential Mitigations
Phases:
architecture and design
implementation
Descriptions:
•
When freeing pointers, be sure to set them to NULL once they are freed. However, the utilization of multiple or complex data structures may lower the usefulness of this strategy.
•
Choose a language that provides automatic memory management.
Functional Areas
memory management