Memory safety is a concern in software development that aims to avoid software bugs that cause security vulnerabilities dealing with random-access memory (RAM) access, such as buffer overflows and dangling pointers.
Questions tagged [memory-safety]
47 questions
54
votes
8 answers
Buffer overflow works in gdb but not without it
I am on CentOS 6.4 32 bit and am trying to cause a buffer overflow in a program. Within GDB it works. Here is the output:
[root@localhost bufferoverflow]# gdb stack
GNU gdb (GDB) Red Hat Enterprise Linux (7.2-60.el6_4.1)
Copyright (C) 2010 Free…
thaweatherman
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48
votes
8 answers
Is Python type safe?
According to Wikipedia
Computer scientists consider a language "type-safe" if it does not allow operations or conversions that violate the rules of the type system.
Since Python runtime checks ensure that type system rules are satisfied, we should…
user8664060
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24
votes
1 answer
Quickchecking a nasty foreign function in Haskell(GHC)
I'd like to use Haskell's quickcheck library test some C code. The easiest way seems to be doing a foreign import and write a property on top of the resulting haskell function. The problem with this is that if the C code causes a segfault or…
aleator
- 4,436
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- 31
22
votes
2 answers
weak vs unowned in Swift. What are the internal differences?
I understand the usage and superficial differences between weak and unowned in Swift:
The simplest examples I've seen is that if there is a Dog and a Bone, the Bone may have a weak reference to the Dog (and vice versa) because the each can exist…
ephemer
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21
votes
2 answers
What does it take to write memory safe C++ applications?
Is it possible to either create a coding standard or use of a library that can be proved to eliminate any memory management errors in C++?
I'm thinking of something like Java, it is just impossible to for example have dangling pointers in Java…
Jesus H
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17
votes
3 answers
How does Rust achieve compile-time-only pointer safety?
I have read somewhere that in a language that features pointers, it is not possible for the compiler to decide fully at compile time whether all pointers are used correctly and/or are valid (refer to an alive object) for various reasons, since that…
The Paramagnetic Croissant
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11
votes
1 answer
Alternatives to dynamic allocations in safety critical projects (C)
Safety critical projects do not recommend any dynamic allocations or freeing allocated memory. Only during elaboration/initialization phase of the program execution, it is allowed.
I know most of you will argue to implement SW in terms where it…
Akay
- 1,092
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10
votes
1 answer
Is Python memory-safe?
With Deno being the new Node.js rival and all, the memory-safe nature of Rust has been mentioned in a lot of news articles, one particular piece stated Rust and Go are good for their memory-safe nature, as are Swift and Kotlin but the latter two are…
qedk
- 468
- 6
- 18
10
votes
3 answers
Clarify the meaning of binding two references to differently scoped referents to the same lifetime in a function signature
I've been trying to get my head around the Rust borrowing and ownership model.
Suppose we have the following code:
fn main() {
let a = String::from("short");
{
let b = String::from("a long long long string");
println!("{}",…
Edd Barrett
- 3,425
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8
votes
2 answers
Why are borrows of struct members allowed in &mut self, but not of self to immutable methods?
If I have a struct that encapsulates two members, and updates one based on the other, that's fine as long as I do it this way:
struct A {
value: i64
}
impl A {
pub fn new() -> Self {
A { value: 0 }
}
pub fn do_something(&mut…
Leonora Tindall
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6
votes
1 answer
What is an efficient equivalent in C# for Span>, which does not exist?
I was porting some older high-speed C++ code to C#, and the existing code made use of a pointer-based double-indirection pattern like this (written here in a C# syntax), using the stack as efficient temporary storage:
public struct Source {
…
Sean Werkema
- 5,810
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5
votes
1 answer
Ownership tracking in Rust: Difference between Box (heap) and T (stack)
Experimenting with the programming language Rust, I found that the compiler is able to track a move of a field of some struct on the stack very accurately (it knows exactly what field has moved).
However, when I put one part of the structure into a…
domin
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5
votes
1 answer
How can I manually zero out memory?
Is it possible to manually clear out the contents of an object from memory?
In particular, I'm dealing with NSData. I've tried using data.length = 0 and data.setData(NSData).
I know ARC will come in and clean up after it is out of scope to whom it…
David Biga
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4
votes
2 answers
Is there a C++ warning for returning a reference into a temporary?
There's an error for this case:
const int& foo() {
const int x = 0;
return x;
}
and even
const int& foo() {
const std::pair x = {0,0};
return x.first;
}
but not this:
const int& foo() {
const std::array x =…
Ben
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4
votes
1 answer
Memory safety in swift (inout param/long term access)
I was reading the memory safety chapter in swift, and wanted to try this exemple :
var stepSize = 1
func increment(_ number: inout Int) {
number += stepSize
}
increment(&stepSize)
Event if it says that there is an error because of the…
user509981