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Dangling Pointer

Refers to a memory corruption vulnerability that occurs when a pointer continues to point to a memory location after it has been freed (deallocated or released).

Remediation:

  • When freeing pointers, be sure to set them to NULL once they are freed.
  • However, multiple or complex data structures may lower the usefulness of this strategy.

Metadata

  • Severity: medium
  • Slug: dangling-pointer

CWEs

  • 416: Use After Free

Available Labs

Open C labs in SecDim Play for this vulnerability.

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