Referencing memory after it has been freed can cause a program to crash.
Use after free errors occur when a program continues to use a pointer after it has been freed. Like double free errors and memory leaks, use after free errors have two common and sometimes overlapping causes:
- Error conditions and other exceptional circumstances.
- Confusion over which part of the program is responsible for freeing the memory
Use after free errors sometimes have no effect and other times cause a program to crash. While it is technically feasible for the freed memory to be re-allocated and for an attacker to use this reallocation to launch a buffer overflow attack, we are unaware of any exploits based on this type of attack.
Example: The following code illustrates a use after free error:
char* ptr = (char*)malloc (SIZE);
...
if (err) {
abrt = 1;
free(ptr);
}
...
if (abrt) {
logError("operation aborted before commit", ptr);
}
[1] Standards Mapping - OWASP Top 10 2004 - (OWASP 2004) A9 Application Denial of Service
[2] Standards Mapping - Security Technical Implementation Guide Version 3 - (STIG 3) APP6080 CAT II
[3] Standards Mapping - Common Weakness Enumeration - (CWE) CWE ID 416
[4] Standards Mapping - Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard Version 1.1 - (PCI 1.1) Requirement 6.5.9