CWE Rule 234

Failure to Handle Missing Parameter

Since R2026a

Description

If too few arguments are sent to a function, the function will still pop the expected number of arguments from the stack. Potentially, a variable number of arguments could be exhausted in a function as well.

Polyspace Implementation

The rule checker checks for Too many va_arg calls for current argument list.

Examples

expand all

Too many va_arg calls for current argument list

Issue

This issue occurs when the number of calls to va_arg exceeds the number of arguments passed to the corresponding variadic function. The analysis raises a defect only when the variadic function is called.

The issue is not reported when:

The number of calls to va_arg inside the variadic function is indeterminate. For example, if the calls are from an external source.
The va_list used in va_arg is invalid.

Risk

When you call va_arg and there is no next argument available in va_list, the behavior is undefined. The call to va_arg might corrupt data or return an unexpected result.

Fix

Ensure that you pass the correct number of arguments to the variadic function.

Example — No Argument Available When Calling va_arg

In this example, the named argument and only one variadic argument are passed to variadic_func() when it is called inside func(). On the second call to va_arg, no further variadic argument is available in ap and the behavior is undefined.

#include <stdarg.h>
#include <stddef.h>
#include <math.h>

/* variadic function defined with
* one named argument 'count'
*/
int variadic_func(int count, ...) {
    int result = -1;
    va_list ap;
    va_start(ap, count);
    if (count > 0) {
        result = va_arg(ap, int);
        count --;
        if (count > 0) {
/* No further argument available 
* in va_list when calling va_arg
*/	

            result += va_arg(ap, int); //Noncompliant
        }
    }
    va_end(ap);
    return result;
}

void func(void) {

    (void)variadic_func(2, 100); 

}

Correction — Pass Correct Number of Arguments to Variadic Function

One possible correction is to check the length of your buffer against the maximum value minus 2. This check ensures that you have enough space to copy the data to the beta structure.

One possible correction is to ensure that you pass the correct number of arguments to the variadic function.

#include <stdarg.h>
#include <stddef.h>
#include <math.h>

/* variadic function defined with
* one named argument 'count'
*/

int variadic_func(int count, ...) {
    int result = -1;
    va_list ap;
    va_start(ap, count);
    if (count > 0) {
        result = va_arg(ap, int);
        count --;
        if (count > 0) {

/* The correct number of arguments is
* passed to va_list when variadic_func()
* is called inside func()
*/			
            result += va_arg(ap, int); 
        }
    }
    va_end(ap);
    return result;
}

void func(void) {

    (void)variadic_func(2, 100, 200); 

}

Check Information

Category: Others

PQL Name: std.cwe_native.R234

Version History

Introduced in R2026a