CWE-786

Access of Memory Location Before Start of Buffer
AI Translation Available

The product reads or writes to a buffer using an index or pointer that references a memory location prior to the beginning of the buffer.

Status
incomplete
Abstraction
base
C C++ Memory-Unsafe

This typically occurs when a pointer or its index is decremented to a position before the buffer, when pointer arithmetic results in a position before the beginning of the valid memory location, or when a negative index is used.

Common Consequences

confidentiality integrity availability
Impacts
read memory modify memory dos: crash, exit, or restart execute unauthorized code or commands

Detection Methods

fuzzing automated dynamic analysis

Potential Mitigations

Functional Areas

memory management