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The CERT ® C Coding Standard: 98 Rules for Developing Safe, Reliable, and Secure Systems, Second Edition

Name: The CERT ® C Coding Standard: 98 Rules for Developing Safe, Reliable, and Secure Systems, Second Edition
Author: Robert C. Seacord
ISBN: 9780133812275

by Robert C. Seacord

April 2014

Intermediate to advanced

576 pages

14h 45m

English

Addison-Wesley Professional

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About This eBook
Title Page
Copyright Page
Dedication Page
Contents
Preface
ScopeWho Should Read This BookHistoryISO/IEC TS 17961 C Secure Coding RulesTool Selection and ValidationTaint AnalysisRules versus RecommendationsUsageConformance TestingSystem QualitiesHow This Book Is OrganizedAutomatically Generated CodeGovernment Regulations
Acknowledgments
Contributors
About the Author
Chapter 1. Preprocessor (PRE)
PRE30-C. Do not create a universal character name through concatenationPRE31-C. Avoid side effects in arguments to unsafe macrosPRE32-C. Do not use preprocessor directives in invocations of function-like macros

Chapter 2. Declarations and Initialization (DCL)
DCL30-C. Declare objects with appropriate storage durationsDCL31-C. Declare identifiers before using themDCL36-C. Do not declare an identifier with conflicting linkage classificationsDCL37-C. Do not declare or define a reserved identifierDCL38-C. Use the correct syntax when declaring a flexible array memberDCL39-C. Avoid information leakage in structure paddingDCL40-C. Do not create incompatible declarations of the same function or objectDCL41-C. Do not declare variables inside a switch statement before the first case label
Chapter 3. Expressions (EXP)
EXP30-C. Do not depend on the order of evaluation for side effectsEXP32-C. Do not access a volatile object through a nonvolatile referenceEXP33-C. Do not read uninitialized memoryEXP34-C. Do not dereference null pointersEXP35-C. Do not modify objects with temporary lifetimeEXP36-C. Do not cast pointers into more strictly aligned pointer typesEXP37-C. Call functions with the correct number and type of argumentsEXP39-C. Do not access a variable through a pointer of an incompatible typeEXP40-C. Do not modify constant objectsEXP42-C. Do not compare padding dataEXP43-C. Avoid undefined behavior when using restrict-qualified pointersEXP44-C. Do not rely on side effects in operands to sizeof, _Alignof, or _GenericEXP45-C. Do not perform assignments in selection statements
Chapter 4. Integers (INT)
INT30-C. Ensure that unsigned integer operations do not wrapINT31-C. Ensure that integer conversions do not result in lost or misinterpreted dataINT32-C. Ensure that operations on signed integers do not result in overflowINT33-C. Ensure that division and remainder operations do not result in divide-by-zero errorsINT34-C. Do not shift an expression by a negative number of bits or by greater than or equal to the number of bits that exist in the operandINT35-C. Use correct integer precisionsINT36-C. Converting a pointer to integer or integer to pointer
Chapter 5. Floating Point (FLP)
FLP30-C. Do not use floating-point variables as loop countersFLP32-C. Prevent or detect domain and range errors in math functionsFLP34-C. Ensure that floating-point conversions are within range of the new typeFLP36-C. Preserve precision when converting integral values to floating-point type
Chapter 6. Arrays (ARR)
ARR30-C. Do not form or use out-of-bounds pointers or array subscriptsARR32-C. Ensure size arguments for variable length arrays are in a valid rangeARR36-C. Do not subtract or compare two pointers that do not refer to the same arrayARR37-C. Do not add or subtract an integer to a pointer to a non-array objectARR38-C. Guarantee that library functions do not form invalid pointersARR39-C. Do not add or subtract a scaled integer to a pointer
Chapter 7. Characters and Strings (STR)
STR30-C. Do not attempt to modify string literalsSTR31-C. Guarantee that storage for strings has sufficient space for character data and the null terminatorSTR32-C. Do not pass a non-null-terminated character sequence to a library function that expects a stringSTR34-C. Cast characters to unsigned char before converting to larger integer sizesSTR37-C. Arguments to character handling functions must be representable as an unsigned charSTR38-C. Do not confuse narrow and wide character strings and functions
Chapter 8. Memory Management (MEM)
MEM30-C. Do not access freed memoryMEM31-C. Free dynamically allocated memory when no longer neededMEM33-C. Allocate and copy structures containing a flexible array member dynamicallyMEM34-C. Only free memory allocated dynamicallyMEM35-C. Allocate sufficient memory for an objectMEM36-C. Do not modify the alignment of objects by calling realloc()
Chapter 9. Input/Output (FIO)
FIO30-C. Exclude user input from format stringsFIO31-C. Do not open a file that is already openFIO32-C. Do not perform operations on devices that are only appropriate for filesFIO34-C. Distinguish between characters read from a file and EOF or WEOFFIO37-C. Do not assume that fgets() or fgetws() returns a nonempty string when successfulFIO38-C. Do not copy a FILE objectFIO39-C. Do not alternately input and output from a stream without an intervening flush or positioning callFIO40-C. Reset strings on fgets() or fgetws() failureFIO41-C. Do not call getc(), putc(), getwc(), or putwc() with a stream argument that has side effectsFIO42-C. Close files when they are no longer neededFIO44-C. Only use values for fsetpos() that are returned from fgetpos()FIO45-C. Avoid TOCTOU race conditions while accessing filesFIO46-C. Do not access a closed fileFIO47-C. Use valid format strings
Chapter 10. Environment (ENV)
ENV30-C. Do not modify the object referenced by the return value of certain functionsENV31-C. Do not rely on an environment pointer following an operation that may invalidate itENV32-C. All exit handlers must return normallyENV33-C. Do not call system()ENV34-C. Do not store pointers returned by certain functions
Chapter 11. Signals (SIG)
SIG30-C. Call only asynchronous-safe functions within signal handlersSIG31-C. Do not access shared objects in signal handlersSIG34-C. Do not call signal() from within interruptible signal handlersSIG35-C. Do not return from a computational exception signal handler
Chapter 12. Error Handling (ERR)
ERR30-C. Set errno to zero before calling a library function known to set errno, and check errno only after the function returns a value indicating failureERR32-C. Do not rely on indeterminate values of errnoERR33-C. Detect and handle standard library errors
Chapter 13. Concurrency (CON)
CON30-C. Clean up thread-specific storageCON31-C. Do not destroy a mutex while it is lockedCON32-C. Prevent data races when accessing bit-fields from multiple threadsCON33-C. Avoid race conditions when using library functionsCON34-C. Declare objects shared between threads with appropriate storage durationsCON35-C. Avoid deadlock by locking in a predefined orderCON36-C. Wrap functions that can spuriously wake up in a loopCON37-C. Do not call signal() in a multithreaded programCON38-C. Preserve thread-safety and liveness when using condition variablesCON39-C. Do not join or detach a thread that was previously joined or detachedCON40-C. Do not refer to an atomic variable twice in an expressionCON41-C. Wrap functions that can fail spuriously in a loop
Chapter 14. Miscellaneous (MSC)
MSC30-C. Do not use the rand() function for generating pseudorandom numbersMSC32-C. Properly seed pseudorandom number generatorsMSC33-C. Do not pass invalid data to the asctime() functionMSC37-C. Ensure that control never reaches the end of a non-void functionMSC38-C. Do not treat a predefined identifier as an object if it might only be implemented as a macroMSC39-C. Do not call va_arg() on a va_list that has an indeterminate valueMSC40-C. Do not violate constraints
Appendix A. Glossary
Appendix B. Undefined Behavior
Appendix C. Unspecified Behavior
Bibliography
Index

Content preview from The CERT ® C Coding Standard: 98 Rules for Developing Safe, Reliable, and Secure Systems, Second Edition

Contributors

Aaron Ballman is a security software engineer at CERT. He is an active developer on the Clang open source C, C++, and Objective-C compiler, focusing primarily on frontend development. Aaron has more than a decade of experience writing commercial compilers for various programming languages, as well as developing cross-platform C and C++ frameworks. He is the author of Ramblings on REALbasic (2009).

John Benito is an independent consultant providing software development, project management, and software testing. He is the current convener ...

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The CERT ® C Coding Standard: 98 Rules for Developing Safe, Reliable, and Secure Systems, Second Edition

by Robert C. Seacord

Contributors

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