EXP34-C is a common consequence of ignoring function return values, but it is a distinct error, and can occur in other scenarios too. At worst, it could expose debugging information that would be useful to an attacker or it could allow an The above check can't hurt, as I guess you could have a system with a 32-bit size_t that had a ton of memory and had some crazy banking/selector scheme with pointers. My code is GPL licensed, can I issue a license to have my code be distributed in a specific MIT licensed project? To learn more, see our tips on writing great answers. Doing so will cause a NullPointerException to be thrown. For the time being, I would unfortunately recommend to mark as False Positive the issue. @Tibor SonarQube version 5.6.6, IntelliJ SonarLint plugin 3.0.0.2041, Sonar: Null pointers should not be dereferenced, How Intuit democratizes AI development across teams through reusability. The nature of simulating nature: A Q&A with IBM Quantum researcher Dr. Jamie We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. At I believe that dereferencing NULL should not crash the system, should not allow a write to a NULL pointer area, but should always set errno, If I am a hacker, could I trap a null failure that would force a memory dump. The purpose of a NULL pointer is not to cause a processor exception when it is dereferenced (although that is nice to have for debugging.) Software Engineering Institute sonarlint, sonarLint (3.2.) isEmpty(Collection collection) int changed to size_t and if size_t parameter's is zero, allocate one word. The nature of simulating nature: A Q&A with IBM Quantum researcher Dr. Jamie We've added a "Necessary cookies only" option to the cookie consent popup. Reports. By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. So no checking of the length is necessary (besides preventing integer overflow, which the compliant solution does). You can compare a pointer with NULL to test for the special condition. See "Clever Attack Exploits Fully-Patched Linux Kernel" [Goodin 2009] for an example of a code execution exploit that resulted from a null pointer dereference. Browse other questions tagged, Where developers & technologists share private knowledge with coworkers, Reach developers & technologists worldwide. Is a PhD visitor considered as a visiting scholar? 1 Answer Sorted by: 1 Your code is ok. The chunkdata pointer is later used as a destination argument in a call to memcpy(), resulting in user-defined data overwriting memory starting at address 0. The method takes a relation name r as input, executes the query "select * from r," and prints the result out in tabular format with the attribute names displayed in the table's header; the attribute names are displayed in the table's header. Removing the check "exception != null" raises S2259 "Null pointers should not be dereferenced" on "throw exception". The solution that I recommend is not work with null returns or variables on Java, try to avoid it. With their flexibility, void pointers also bring some constraints. You need to benchmark. Setup is effortless and analysis is automatic for most languages, Fast, accurate analysis; enterprise scalability. Possible fix: Assign a valid address to the pointer in all branches of the conditional statement.. Pointer can point to dynamically allocated memory. Not the answer you're looking for? , RemoteContext new ExceptionType() RemoteContext , SonarLintJava (), java - sonarLint "Null pointers should not be dereferenced (squid:S2259)"Stack Overflow What does it mean that a reference must refer to an object, not a dereferenced null pointer? Provide a self-contained reproducer (zipped project?) In my experience, there are reasons to check for a NULL pointer other than dereferencing it. Void pointers cannot be dereferenced as any other pointer. Is there a proper earth ground point in this switch box? 5.2 Part 2 Sometimes a helper function is de ned to perform the memory allocation. Dereferencing a null pointer is undefined behavior. Aaron:I suspect we are talking past each other. Interactions/interfaces with C can't use references. {"serverDuration": 214, "requestCorrelationId": "084acdc104f21c51"}, EXP34-C. Do not dereference null pointers, Clever Attack Exploits Fully-Patched Linux Kernel, ERR33-C. Detect and handle standard library errors, one compliant and one non-compliant example, CERT Oracle Secure Coding Standard for Java, EXP01-J. . Making statements based on opinion; back them up with references or personal experience. Browse other questions tagged, Where developers & technologists share private knowledge with coworkers, Reach developers & technologists worldwide, It is a false positive, but it might be a good idea not to do the, Sonar false-positive on rule: Null pointers should not be dereferenced, How Intuit democratizes AI development across teams through reusability. Is it possible to create a concave light? https://www.yammer.com/ http://feeds.feedburner.com/office/fmNx By clicking Accept all cookies, you agree Stack Exchange can store cookies on your device and disclose information in accordance with our Cookie Policy. When B is null, The control reaches inside the main if block only when length of A is 1. Report False-positive / False-negative [LTS] The new SonarQube LTS is here: SONARQUBE 9.9 LTS, SonarQube - Null Pointer Dereference Issue. )}"); Is it plausible for constructed languages to be used to affect thought and control or mold people towards desired outcomes? Share Improve this answer Follow answered Oct 5, 2017 at 16:27 Optimizers are optimizing based on this latitude and have been for years. S2259: Null pointers should not be dereferenced java tsubasa (Jiaoyang Ma) January 11, 2019, 6:57am 1 versions used (SonarQube, Scanner, language analyzer) SonarQube Version 6.7.2 (build 37468) SonarJava Version 5.9.2 (build 16552) minimal code sample to reproduce (with analysis parameter, and potential instructions to compile). A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. Trying to understand how to get this basic Fourier Series. uninitialized reference-type class members. Do "superinfinite" sets exist? The issue is: memcpy() and friends do not explicitly state that a null pointer is a valid pointer value, even if the number of bytes to copy is 0. Your assertion is not backed by the wording in the standard, nor by common implementer understanding. In this noncompliant code example, input_str is copied into dynamically allocated memory referenced by c_str. Dereferencing a null pointer can lead to a denial of service. Haiku is a free and open-source operating system for PC designed to be binary compatible with the BeOS operating system and embodying the basic ideas of BeOS. rev2023.3.3.43278. This rule applies to all null pointers, regardless of which function returned them. Since you cannot have a variable of type void, the pointer will not point to any data and therefore cannot be dereferenced. What sort of strategies would a medieval military use against a fantasy giant? A pointer is simply a variable that contains a memory address. SONAR, SONARSOURCE, SONARLINT, SONARQUBE and SONARCLOUD are trademarks of SonarSource S.A. All other trademarks and copyrights are the property of their respective owners. Note that 7.1.4 explicitly states that a null pointer is not a valid pointer argument. A nonnegative return value represents the number of bytes successfully read (the return value is a "signed size" type, usually the native integer type for the target platform). That is, sets equivalent to a proper subset via an all-structure-preserving bijection. Did any DOS compatibility layers exist for any UNIX-like systems before DOS started to become outmoded? Consider the following scenario: you are asked to create a Java class MetaDisplay that contains a static void printTable(String r) method. Then we hit memcpy with length 0. When a variable is declared as being a pointer to type void, it is known as a generic pointer. So you can declare a string t and then add characters to the string with a plus sign : t += 'a'; The code you are having issue with is just moving the pointer to the next character which the foreach is already doing. But the problem also exists in the compliant version, so I'm not so sure that it's really compliant. The null concept refers to the idea that a pointer can hold a special value that is not equal to another pointer. Im very new to sonar, is there a way to add methods to the whitelist? Site design / logo 2023 Stack Exchange Inc; user contributions licensed under CC BY-SA. In multithreaded programs, null pointer dereferences can violate cache coherency policies and can cause resource leaks. Browse other questions tagged, Where developers & technologists share private knowledge with coworkers, Reach developers & technologists worldwide, SonarQube null pointers should not be dereferenced on try/catch, How Intuit democratizes AI development across teams through reusability. Sonar is ok. Sonar can't determine that the helper method did the null validation. Passing a null pointer tomemcpy() would produce undefined behavior, even if the number of bytes to copy were 0. Dereferencing a null pointer is undefined behavior, typically abnormal program termination. We resolved it by adding our tools path in the white list, and repackaging it. I suggest that this topic needs to include calloc() and realloc() Refer to Linux man pages online for more enlightenment about malloc(), and friends. That is why I explicitly check for this in my attempted solution. The n=0 is a mildly interesting edge case: Clearly a pointer that points to at least one valid byte could be used as the src or dest pointer to a call to memcpy(, 0). Hi Andreas, Thanks for the feedback. Please direct comments on this JSR to the Spec Lead (s) Team. It means this is illegal: T* p = nullptr; T& r = *p; // illegal NOTE: Please do not email us saying the above works on your particular version of your particular compiler. "After the incident", I started to be more careful not to trip over things. It does not point to any area of memory. sonar-java. LANG.MEM.NPDLANG.STRUCT.NTADLANG.STRUCT.UPD, Null pointer dereferenceNull test after dereferenceUnchecked parameter dereference, Can detect violations of this rule. It could be non-null the first time but not the second time, sonar does not know this. Doing so will at best cause abrupt program termination, without the PS: I also tried the code in android studio which uses Lint and got no warnings. You can use Optional instead. In particular, ROSE ensures that any pointer returned by malloc(), calloc(), or realloc() is first checked for NULL before being used (otherwise, it is free()-ed). So let me be more precise in my wording: I assert that a platform whose memcpy() did anything besides copy zero bytes when given n=0 and valid src and dest pointers was not C-standards-compliant. To be precise, once length is changed to a size_t and cannot take negative values, it cannot have an invalid value. Trying to understand how to get this basic Fourier Series. At worst, it could expose debugging information that would be useful to an attacker, or If copying takes place between objects that overlap, the behavior is undefined. A reference to null should never be dereferenced/accessed. What is null pointer exception in android. The correct idiom is to only allocate storage if the pointer is currently NULL. vegan) just to try it, does this inconvenience the caterers and staff? Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. On many platforms, dereferencing a null pointer results in abnormal program termination, but this is not required by the standard. On the command prompt, the same arguments work and the record is added in db but not when I call the stored procedure from inside java program CallableStatement insertStat = db_conn.prepareCall (" {call InsertCourses (?,?,?,?,?,?,?,? What can a lawyer do if the client wants him to be acquitted of everything despite serious evidence? Much like dereferencing a dangling (or wild) pointer leads to undefined behavior, dereferencing a null pointer also leads to undefined behavior. The problem is, I hope this code's result to be <5,3> and <9,6> BUT the console only shows me <5,3> and <9,3>. So we have to check all the arguments before performing any actions. Staging Ground Beta 1 Recap, and Reviewers needed for Beta 2. points to memory allocated to the process) and what exactly was allocated there after the public key was freed, this may cause a segmentation fault or even execute code, which could again cause a segmentation fault, but might potentially be under the attacker's control. Finally, there is the matter of the compliant solution. Avoid Returning null from Methods. This cross-file approach analysis can be quite resource-consuming, and we are not ready to openly enable the feature. It could be non-null the first time but not the second time, sonar does not know this. Thanks for your relpy. By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. The method isNR(minRating) is a helper method that validate among other things, if the object minRating is null. How can we let this pass? At worst, it could expose debugging information that would be useful to an attacker, or it could allow an attacker to bypass security measures. By clicking Post Your Answer, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and cookie policy. Essentially, this code and the previous dereference disagree as to whether this value is allowed to be null. How to use java.net.URLConnection to fire and handle HTTP requests, Why should Java 8's Optional not be used in arguments, sonarLint complains "Null pointers should not be dereferenced (squid:S2259)" despite that possibility being handled. Recovering from a blunder I made while emailing a professor. At best, such an exception will cause abrupt program termination. Not the answer you're looking for? When c_str is dereferenced in memcpy(), the program exhibits undefined behavior. Is there a solution to add special characters from software and how to do it, Acidity of alcohols and basicity of amines. The value 0 for the number of bytes to copy is not what causes the UB, it's the null pointer value which triggers it. Alternate Terms Relationships null(java.lang.NullPointerException) . Hi @Michael! io.NotSerializableException : java. Linear regulator thermal information missing in datasheet, Identify those arcade games from a 1983 Brazilian music video. What is pointed to should only be deleted if it was created with new. It also uses the unsigned type size_t to pass the length parameter, ensuring that negative values are not passed to func(). positive S2637 in SonarQube 6.7.1 LTS, SonarQube for MSBuild not reporting quality issues, getTextContent() through "Null pointers should not be dereferenced". Setup is effortless and analysis is automatic for most languages, Fast, accurate analysis; enterprise scalability. You're in a company-managed project. Issues Components. In some situations, however, dereferencing a null pointer can lead to the execution of arbitrary code [Jack 2007,van Sprundel 2006]. I believe in this case, either expression would work. Find centralized, trusted content and collaborate around the technologies you use most. very old code or C code being worked into c++ may have functions that expect the user to delete the data. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. - the incident has nothing to do with me; can I use this this way? We really appreciate your help. Thered be huge value in jumping onto the latest version of the ecosystem (notably SonarQube), and benefit from all latest analyzers (e.g. I could've fixed this by changing else to else if (B != null && B.length == 1), but doing so rewards me with warning "condition(B != null && B.length == 1) is always true". I don't need to do this validation again. There are many ways to resolve this. How can we prove that the supernatural or paranormal doesn't exist? A reference to null should never be dereferenced/accessed. If you preorder a special airline meal (e.g. This engine is validating execution paths and checking for non-null values or null-check along the way, exploring all the possibilities. But what exactly does it mean to "dereference a null pointer"? Iflengthhas the value1, the addition yields 0, and png_malloc() subsequently returns a null pointer, which is assigned to chunkdata. Solution 1, it looks like, today's solution tomorrow's problem. Is there a single-word adjective for "having exceptionally strong moral principles"? Powered by Discourse, best viewed with JavaScript enabled. A pointer to null (the 0 memory address) should never be dereferenced/accessed. In the meantime, Im locking this thread. util.regex.Matcher, java - Swing .getParent() . C# static code analysis: Null pointers should not be dereferenced Products In-IDE IDE extension that lets you fix coding issues before they exist! In the first compliant example it's useless to do allocation if the essential pointer user_data is NULL. extern char _etext; In the simplest case, this function just returns the result of calling kmalloc. IDE extension that lets you fix coding issues before they exist! I've changed it to say null pointer instead of invalid pointer. Connect and share knowledge within a single location that is structured and easy to search. Shouldn't the function check all pointers before dereferencing them or passing them to another function? Not the answer you're looking for? This noncompliant code example is derived from a real-world example taken from a vulnerable version of the libpng library as deployed on a popular ARM-based cell phone [Jack 2007]. However, memory allocation > functions such as kstrdup() may fail and returns NULL. But when length of A is 1, the control never reaches the else block. Such long getter chains can also be replaced with Optional + map + ifPresent lambda style. The only potential null is the return value of list(). It also adds assertions to document that certain other pointers must not be null. Unless explicitly stated otherwise in the description of a particular function in this subclause, pointer arguments on such a call shall still have valid values, as described in 7.1.4. Staging Ground Beta 1 Recap, and Reviewers needed for Beta 2. MSBuild SonarQube Runner Resharper Plugin receives skipping info errors File not in sonarqube, SonarQube jenkins plugin returns "Server returned HTTP response code: -1, message: 'null' for URL: https://api.github.com/user", SonarQube: Ignore issues in blocks not working with regex, sonarLint complains "Null pointers should not be dereferenced (squid:S2259)" despite that possibility being handled, Java: (false?) I added a comment to explain that SIZE_MAX is the limit of size_t. [4] sonarlint complains that NullPointerException is a RuntimeException. Now (sonarqube java analyzer version 4.3.0.7717) it's supported and works fine. 2008-2023 SonarSource S.A., Switzerland. The 2nd NCCE/CS pair seems redundant with the first NCCE/CS pair. (C11, S7.24.2.1). Just because something is a pointer does not mean you should call delete . And fwstr > is dereferenced in the following codes. It's even called out explicitly in C17 7.24.1p2: Where an argument declared as size_t n specifies the length of the array for a function, n can have the value zero on a call to that function. Rule squid:S2259 is based on a Symbolic Execution (SE) engine. We can get a reference to point to null in the following ways: "uninitialized" reference type variables variables which are initialized with nulls and are assigned their real value afterward. This code also violates ERR33-C. Detect and handle standard library errors. It also reinforces the notion to the reader that any time you see arithmetic in an allocation expression, you need to think about corner-cases. sonarqube If you call connect() function, it better do the connection, but failing simply because some ptr is NULL is not good behaviour -- failures should . Software project. Sonar is ok. 3.7. In C, dereferencing a null pointer is undefined behavior. String *x, y; X is a pointer to a string, Y is a string & = address of variable/ operator || referencing operator * = value of address || dereferencing operator Pointers = stores memory address as its variables NULL pointer = a constant with a value of zero defined || assigned to null Void pointer = a pointer that is not associated with any data types New operator = denotes a request for . Explain about call by reference with an . There is no guarantee that subsequent invocations are returning the same value, thats why issue is raised. Is it suspicious or odd to stand by the gate of a GA airport watching the planes? At best, such an exception will cause abrupt program termination. Description: This JSR will work to develop standard annotations (such as @NonNull) that can be applied to Java programs to assist tools that detect software defects. positive S2637 in SonarQube 6.7.1 LTS, Sonar false positive, "change condition so that it does not always evaluate to true. I would therefore assert that a platform whose memcpy() did anything besides a no-op when given n=0 and valid source/destination pointers was not C-standards-compliant. Mutually exclusive execution using std::atomic? Whats the grammar of "For those whose stories they are"? How to use Slater Type Orbitals as a basis functions in matrix method correctly? Staging Ground Beta 1 Recap, and Reviewers needed for Beta 2, Sonar: Null pointers should not be dereferenced, Why should Java 8's Optional not be used in arguments, Sonar alert : "private" methods that don't access instance data should be "static", sonarLint complains "Null pointers should not be dereferenced (squid:S2259)" despite that possibility being handled, Java: (false?) Is it possible to rotate a window 90 degrees if it has the same length and width? (from res.getBody().getServiceResult() ). 4500 Fifth Avenue In C# and Java, all reference types can point to null. We can not disable any rule, sonar do validation in "Sonar way" (actual name of profile :) ), so we will need to mark them "Wont fix" each time it appear again in new code. NULL vs Uninitialized pointer - An uninitialized pointer stores an undefined value. My question is; is my solution incorrect? The article easily misleads the reader into believeing that ensuring pointer validity boils down to checking for pointer being not equal to NULL. Asking for help, clarification, or responding to other answers. The indicated severity is for this more severe case; on platforms where it is not possible to exploit a null pointer dereference to execute arbitrary code, the actual severity is low. CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference: A NULL pointer dereference occurs when the application dereferences a pointer that it expects to be valid, but is NULL, typically causing a crash or exit. Best to cite C11 s7.24.2.1 here: The memcpy function copies n characters from the object pointed to by s2 into the object pointed to by s1. Perhaps this could be done with a special constraint that will notify the SE engine that we learned from a Debug.Assert call. The expected result here is solve the issue with sonarqube. All rights are expressly reserved. (in the meantime, in case of any other false-positive suspicion, make sure to check those latest versions as bunch of improvements are regularly released). Does Java have support for multiline strings? parsing /proc/self/maps under linux) one might find out whether the pointer points into mapped memory, but this is still not a guarantee of validity because it is very coarse-grained see again the above example. Doing so will cause a NullReferenceException to be thrown.