CERT C++: ERR34-C

Detect errors when converting a string to a number

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Description

Rule Definition

Detect errors when converting a string to a number.¹

Polyspace Implementation

The rule checker checks for Unsafe conversion from string to numerical value.

Examples

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Unsafe conversion from string to numerical value

Issue

Unsafe conversion from string to numerical value detects conversions from strings to integer or floating-point values. If your conversion method does not include robust error handling, a defect is raised.

Risk

Converting a string to numerical value can cause data loss or misinterpretation. Without validation of the conversion or error handling, your program continues with invalid values.

Fix

Add additional checks to validate the numerical value.
Use a more robust string-to-numeric conversion function such as strtol, strtoll, strtoul, or strtoull.

Example - Conversion With atoi

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>

static int demo_check_string_not_empty(char *s)
{
    if (s != NULL)
        return strlen(s) > 0; /* check string null-terminated and not empty */
    else
        return 0;
}

int unsafestrtonumeric(char* argv1)
{
    int s = 0;
    if (demo_check_string_not_empty(argv1))
    {
        s = atoi(argv1); //Noncompliant
    }
    return s;
}

In this example, argv1 is converted to an integer with atoi. atoi does not provide errors for an invalid integer string. The conversion can fail unexpectedly.

Correction — Use strtol instead

One possible correction is to use strtol to validate the input string and the converted integer.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <limits.h>
#include <errno.h>

static int demo_check_string_not_empty(char *s)
{
    if (s != NULL)
        return strlen(s) > 0; /* check string null-terminated and not empty */
    else
        return 0;
}

int unsafestrtonumeric(char *argv1)
{
    char *c_str = argv1;
    char *end;
    long sl;

    if (demo_check_string_not_empty(c_str))
    {
        errno = 0; /* set errno for error check */
        sl = strtol(c_str, &end, 10);
        if (end == c_str)
        {
            (void)fprintf(stderr, "%s: not a decimal number\n", c_str);
        }
        else if ('\0' != *end)
        {
            (void)fprintf(stderr, "%s: extra characters: %s\n", c_str, end);
        }
        else if ((LONG_MIN == sl || LONG_MAX == sl) && ERANGE == errno)
        {
            (void)fprintf(stderr, "%s out of range of type long\n", c_str);
        }
        else if (sl > INT_MAX)
        {
            (void)fprintf(stderr, "%ld greater than INT_MAX\n", sl);
        }
        else if (sl < INT_MIN)
        {
            (void)fprintf(stderr, "%ld less than INT_MIN\n", sl);
        }
        else
        {
            return (int)sl;
        }
    }
    return 0;
}

Check Information

Group: 08. Exceptions and Error Handling (ERR)

Version History

Introduced in R2019a

¹ This software has been created by MathWorks incorporating portions of: the “SEI CERT-C Website,” © 2017 Carnegie Mellon University, the SEI CERT-C++ Web site © 2017 Carnegie Mellon University, ”SEI CERT C Coding Standard – Rules for Developing safe, Reliable and Secure systems – 2016 Edition,” © 2016 Carnegie Mellon University, and “SEI CERT C++ Coding Standard – Rules for Developing safe, Reliable and Secure systems in C++ – 2016 Edition” © 2016 Carnegie Mellon University, with special permission from its Software Engineering Institute.

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