Category: SFP Secondary Cluster: Faulty Pointer Use

Incomplete
Summary

This category identifies Software Fault Patterns (SFPs) within the Faulty Pointer Use cluster (SFP7).

Membership
IDNameDescription
CWE-469Use of Pointer Subtraction to Determine SizeThis vulnerability occurs when a program calculates a size or offset by subtracting two memory pointers, but the pointers point to locations in different memory blocks, leading to an incorrect and potentially dangerous result.
CWE-476NULL Pointer DereferenceThis vulnerability occurs when a program attempts to access or manipulate memory using a pointer that is set to NULL, causing a crash or unexpected behavior.
CWE-588Attempt to Access Child of a Non-structure PointerThis vulnerability occurs when code incorrectly treats a pointer to a basic data type (like an integer) as if it points to a structured object (like a 'struct' in C). The program then tries to access a member field that doesn't exist at that memory location, which can cause crashes or corrupt adjacent data.
CWE-888Software Fault Pattern (SFP) ClustersCWE identifiers in this view are associated with clusters of Software Fault Patterns (SFPs).
Vulnerability Mapping Notes
Usage: Prohibited
Reasons: Category
Rationale:
This entry is a Category. Using categories for mapping has been discouraged since 2019. Categories are informal organizational groupings of weaknesses that can help CWE users with data aggregation, navigation, and browsing. However, they are not weaknesses in themselves.
Comment:
See member weaknesses of this category.