CWE - CWE-742: CERT C Secure Coding Standard (2008) Chapter 9

Category ID: 742

Summary

Weaknesses in this category are related to the rules and recommendations in the Memory Management (MEM) chapter of the CERT C Secure Coding Standard (2008).

Membership

Nature	Type	ID	Name
MemberOf	View - a subset of CWE entries that provides a way of examining CWE content. The two main view structures are Slices (flat lists) and Graphs (containing relationships between entries).	734	Weaknesses Addressed by the CERT C Secure Coding Standard (2008)
HasMember	Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.	20	Improper Input Validation
HasMember	Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.	119	Improper Restriction of Operations within the Bounds of a Memory Buffer
HasMember	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	128	Wrap-around Error
HasMember	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	131	Incorrect Calculation of Buffer Size
HasMember	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	190	Integer Overflow or Wraparound
HasMember	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	226	Sensitive Information in Resource Not Removed Before Reuse
HasMember	Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	244	Improper Clearing of Heap Memory Before Release ('Heap Inspection')
HasMember	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	252	Unchecked Return Value
HasMember	Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	415	Double Free
HasMember	Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	416	Use After Free
HasMember	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	476	NULL Pointer Dereference
HasMember	Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	528	Exposure of Core Dump File to an Unauthorized Control Sphere
HasMember	Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	590	Free of Memory not on the Heap
HasMember	Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	591	Sensitive Data Storage in Improperly Locked Memory
HasMember	Base - a weakness that is still mostly independent of a resource or technology, but with sufficient details to provide specific methods for detection and prevention. Base level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 2 or 3 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	628	Function Call with Incorrectly Specified Arguments
HasMember	Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.	665	Improper Initialization
HasMember	Variant - a weakness that is linked to a certain type of product, typically involving a specific language or technology. More specific than a Base weakness. Variant level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 3 to 5 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, technology, language, and resource.	687	Function Call With Incorrectly Specified Argument Value
HasMember	Class - a weakness that is described in a very abstract fashion, typically independent of any specific language or technology. More specific than a Pillar Weakness, but more general than a Base Weakness. Class level weaknesses typically describe issues in terms of 1 or 2 of the following dimensions: behavior, property, and resource.	754	Improper Check for Unusual or Exceptional Conditions

Notes

Mapping

Use for Mapping: Prohibited (this CWE ID must not be used to map to real-world vulnerabilities).

Rationale: this entry is a Category. Using categories for mapping has been an actively discouraged practice since at least 2019. Categories are informal organizational groupings of weaknesses that help navigation and browsing by CWE users, but they are not weaknesses in themselves.

Comments: See member weaknesses of this category.

Relationship

In the 2008 version of the CERT C Secure Coding standard, the following rules were mapped to the following CWE IDs:

CWE-20 MEM10-C Define and use a pointer validation function
CWE-119 MEM09-C Do not assume memory allocation routines initialize memory
CWE-128 MEM07-C Ensure that the arguments to calloc(), when multiplied, can be represented as a size_t
CWE-131 MEM35-C Allocate sufficient memory for an object
CWE-190 MEM07-C Ensure that the arguments to calloc(), when multiplied, can be represented as a size_t
CWE-190 MEM35-C Allocate sufficient memory for an object
CWE-226 MEM03-C Clear sensitive information stored in reusable resources returned for reuse
CWE-244 MEM03-C Clear sensitive information stored in reusable resources returned for reuse
CWE-252 MEM32-C Detect and handle memory allocation errors
CWE-415 MEM00-C Allocate and free memory in the same module, at the same level of abstraction
CWE-415 MEM01-C Store a new value in pointers immediately after free()
CWE-415 MEM31-C Free dynamically allocated memory exactly once
CWE-416 MEM00-C Allocate and free memory in the same module, at the same level of abstraction
CWE-416 MEM01-C Store a new value in pointers immediately after free()
CWE-416 MEM30-C Do not access freed memory
CWE-476 MEM32-C Detect and handle memory allocation errors
CWE-528 MEM06-C Ensure that sensitive data is not written out to disk
CWE-590 MEM34-C Only free memory allocated dynamically
CWE-591 MEM06-C Ensure that sensitive data is not written out to disk
CWE-628 MEM08-C Use realloc() only to resize dynamically allocated arrays
CWE-665 MEM09-C Do not assume memory allocation routines initialize memory
CWE-687 MEM04-C Do not perform zero length allocations
CWE-754 MEM32-C Detect and handle memory allocation errors

References

[REF-597] Robert C. Seacord. "The CERT C Secure Coding Standard". 1st Edition. Addison-Wesley Professional. 2008-10-14.

Content History

Submissions
Submission Date	Submitter	Organization
2008-11-24	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2008-11-24
Modifications
Modification Date	Modifier	Organization
2011-09-13	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2011-09-13	updated Relationships
2017-11-08	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2017-11-08	updated Description, Name, Relationship_Notes
2019-01-03	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2019-01-03	updated Description, Name, References
2023-04-27	CWE Content Team	MITRE
2023-04-27	updated Mapping_Notes
Previous Entry Names
Change Date	Previous Entry Name
2017-11-08	CERT C Secure Coding Section 08 - Memory Management (MEM)

2019-01-03	CERT C Secure Coding (2008 Version) Section 08 - Memory Management (MEM)

Common Weakness Enumeration

CWE CATEGORY: CERT C Secure Coding Standard (2008) Chapter 9 - Memory Management (MEM)


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