BADFUNC.MEMSET : Use of memset

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CodeSonar^® 9.2p0

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C and C++

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BADFUNC.MEMSET : Use of memset

Summary

A use of memset(). Using memset() to write data for later use is not problematic, but using it to scrub memory is dangerous because some compilers will optimize away code of this kind.

Properties

Class Name

Use of memset

Significance

security

Mnemonic

BADFUNC.MEMSET

Categories

CWE	CWE:14	Compiler Removal of Code to Clear Buffers
	CWE:676	Use of Potentially Dangerous Function
	CWE:1037	Processor Optimization Removal or Modification of Security-critical Code
CERT-C	CERT-C:MSC06-C	Beware of compiler optimizations
CERT-CPP	CERT-CPP:EXP62-CPP	Do not access the bits of an object representation that are not part of the object's value representation
	CERT-CPP:OOP57-CPP	Prefer special member functions and overloaded operators to C Standard Library functions
DISA-3r10	DISA-3r10:V-16793	The designer will ensure the application properly clears or overwrites all memory blocks used to process sensitive data, if required by the information owner, and clears or overwrites all memory blocks used for classified data.
BSI	BSI:MEMSET	Use of memset
OWASP-2021	OWASP-2021:A4	Insecure design
OWASP-2025	OWASP-2025:A06	Insecure Design

Availability

Available for C and C++.

Enabling

Checks for this warning class are disabled by default. To enable them, add the following WARNING_FILTER rule to the project configuration file.

WARNING_FILTER += allow class="Use of memset"

To enable all BSI-related classes, including all BSI-specific BADFUNC classes, use the bsi configuration preset.

Resolution

If memset() is not being used to overwrite sensitive data in memory, these concerns do not apply. Change the warning state to Suppressed.

If memset() is being used to overwrite sensitive data in memory, be aware that your compiler may optimize away the memset() call if the data is not subsequently used. Either

insert code that reads from the newly-written memory locations, or
turn off compiler optimizations for the relevant section of the code, or
replace memset() with a function that is guaranteed not to be optimized out.

Once you have applied one of these techniques, change the warning state to Suppressed.

Relevant Configuration File Parameters

This class is implemented using a BAD_FUNCTION_* rule set in the general template configuration file.

To include an additional function or set of functions in the checks for this class, create a new set of BAD_FUNCTION_* rules in which the BAD_FUNCTION_REGEX setting matches the function or set of functions you want to check and the remaining rules match those in the other sets for this class.
To remove a function or set of functions from the checks for this class, edit the configuration file to comment out the corresponding set of BAD_FUNCTION_* rules.

The following configuration file parameters affect checks for this warning class.

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