MLK.MIGHT
Memory leak possible
The program did not release previously allocated memory and a reference to dynamic memory can be lost at this point on some paths.
Vulnerability and risk
Memory leaks cause the application to consume additional memory. This reduces the amount of memory available to other applications and eventually causes the operating system to start paging, slowing the system down. In critical cases, the application will reach overall memory limits, which may result in application crashes.
Example 1
Copy
void foobar(int i)
{
char* p = new char[10];
if(i) {
p = 0;
}
delete[] p;
}
Klocwork produces a memory leak report for line 5, indicating that the dynamic memory stored in 'p' and allocated through the function 'new[]' at line 3 can be lost at line 5.
External guidance
- CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
- CWE-401: Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime
- CERT ERR57-CPP: Do not leak resources when handling exceptions
- CERT MEM00-C: Allocate and free memory in the same module, at the same level of abstraction
- CERT MEM12-C: Consider using a goto chain when leaving a function on error when using and releasing resources