Hands-On System Programming with Linux

Common memory issues

If one were to categorize to fine-granularity memory errors (typically caused via programming in C or C++), one would have a difficult time of it—hundreds of types exist! Instead, let's keep the discussion manageable and check out what would be considered the typical or common memory errors that befall us poor C programmers:

• Incorrect memory accesses
  • Using uninitialized variables
  • Out-of-bounds memory accesses (read/write underflow/overflow bugs)
  • Use-after-free/use-after-return (out-of-scope) bugs
  • Double-free
• Leakage
• Undefined behavior (UB)
• Data Races
• Fragmentation (internal implementation) issues
  • Internal
  • External

All these common memory issues (except fragmentation) are classified as UB; still, we keep UB as ...