Re: Memory protection between compilation units?

From	Josef Möllers <josef@invalid.invalid>
Newsgroups	comp.lang.c
Subject	Re: Memory protection between compilation units?
Date	2025-06-11 16:06 +0200
Message-ID	<matgqhF5m41U1@mid.individual.net> (permalink)
References	<20250611153239.6bc43323@mateusz>

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On 11.06.25 15:32, Mateusz Viste wrote:
> This might not be a strictly C question, but it definitely concerns all
> C programmers.
> 
> Earlier today, I fixed an out-of-bounds write bug. An obvious issue:
> 
>    static int *socks[0xffff];
> 
>    void update_my_socks(int *sock, int val) {
>      socks[val & 0xffff] = sock;
>    }
> 
> While the presented issue is common knowledge for anyone familiar with
> C, *locating* the bug was challenging. The program did not crash at the
> moment of the out-of-bounds write but much later - somewhere entirely
> different, in a different object file that maintained a static pointer
> for tracking a position in a linked list. To my surprise, the pointer
> was randomly reset to NULL about once a week, causing a segfault.
> Tracing this back to an unrelated out-of-bounds write elsewhere in the
> code was tedious, to say the least.

The pointer was allocated immediately behind the "socks" array, i.e. as 
the 0x10000th element of the array (I have analyzed a similar problem 
for our son a couple of years ago, where the problem occurred and 
vanished when he added some debug statements ;-) ).

> This raises a question: how can such corruptions be detected sooner?
> Protected mode prevents interference between programs but doesn’t
> safeguard a program from corrupting itself. Is there a way to enforce
> memory protection between module files of the same program? After all,
> static objects shouldn't be accessible outside their compilation unit.

I guess it can't because modules can access variables from other 
modules, so either you forbid module B to modify a variable from module 
A, which would break almost every moderately complex program, or you 
fall into this trap.
Thus said ... this is not a problem of memory protection but a problem 
of an out-of-bounds programming error. And ... no, you can't forbid this 
as well, as there are quite a number of programs that define a 
variable-length array (usually in a structure) as having a size of 1 and 
happily writing to index 1234.

> How would you approach this?

Difficult, but, as I said, it's a programming error.

Josef

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Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@x.invalid> - 2025-06-11 15:32 +0200
  Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Josef Möllers <josef@invalid.invalid> - 2025-06-11 16:06 +0200
    Re: Memory protection between compilation units? scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2025-06-11 14:32 +0000
      Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-06-12 20:01 +0300
        Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@x.invalid> - 2025-06-13 09:13 +0200
      Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2025-06-12 19:15 +0100
        Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Rosario19 <Ros@invalid.invalid> - 2025-06-16 18:14 +0200
          Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2025-06-16 17:53 +0100
  Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Lew Pitcher <lew.pitcher@digitalfreehold.ca> - 2025-06-11 14:30 +0000
  Re: Memory protection between compilation units? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2025-06-11 17:14 +0200
    Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@x.invalid> - 2025-06-12 14:31 +0200
      Re: Memory protection between compilation units? David Brown <david.brown@hesbynett.no> - 2025-06-12 15:29 +0200
        Re: Memory protection between compilation units? scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2025-06-12 14:27 +0000
  Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Opus <ifonly@youknew.org> - 2025-06-11 17:19 +0200
    Re: Memory protection between compilation units? wij <wyniijj5@gmail.com> - 2025-06-11 23:38 +0800
    Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@x.invalid> - 2025-06-12 14:41 +0200
      Re: Memory protection between compilation units? scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2025-06-12 13:21 +0000
  Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2025-06-11 15:36 +0000
  Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@x.invalid> - 2025-06-12 10:28 +0200
    Re: Memory protection between compilation units? scott@slp53.sl.home (Scott Lurndal) - 2025-06-12 13:18 +0000
    Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2025-06-12 18:59 +0000
      Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@x.invalid> - 2025-06-13 08:42 +0200
        Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2025-06-13 16:17 +0000
      Re: Memory protection between compilation units? pozz <pozzugno@gmail.com> - 2025-06-13 09:21 +0200
        Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@x.invalid> - 2025-06-13 14:14 +0200
          Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-06-13 16:56 +0300
            Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Richard Heathfield <rjh@cpax.org.uk> - 2025-06-13 15:43 +0100
              Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Michael S <already5chosen@yahoo.com> - 2025-06-14 22:07 +0300
            Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2025-06-13 17:14 +0000
            Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@not.gonna.tell> - 2025-06-14 21:37 +0000
              Re: Memory protection between compilation units? antispam@fricas.org (Waldek Hebisch) - 2025-06-15 13:57 +0000
                Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@not.gonna.tell> - 2025-06-15 20:27 +0000
                Re: Memory protection between compilation units? antispam@fricas.org (Waldek Hebisch) - 2025-06-15 23:50 +0000
                Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2025-06-16 01:01 +0000
                Re: Memory protection between compilation units? antispam@fricas.org (Waldek Hebisch) - 2025-06-16 10:00 +0000
                Re: Memory protection between compilation units? James Kuyper <jameskuyper@alumni.caltech.edu> - 2025-06-16 06:12 -0400
                Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2025-06-16 06:10 -0700
                Re: Memory protection between compilation units? antispam@fricas.org (Waldek Hebisch) - 2025-06-16 16:47 +0000
          Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2025-06-13 16:23 +0000
          Re: Memory protection between compilation units? wij <wyniijj5@gmail.com> - 2025-06-14 02:10 +0800
  Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mikko <mikko.levanto@iki.fi> - 2025-06-12 11:40 +0300
    Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@x.invalid> - 2025-06-12 11:05 +0200
  Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2025-06-12 06:05 -0700
    Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2025-06-13 08:03 +0200
      Re: Memory protection between compilation units? wij <wyniijj5@gmail.com> - 2025-06-14 02:16 +0800
        Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2025-06-13 20:43 +0200
        Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Keith Thompson <Keith.S.Thompson+u@gmail.com> - 2025-06-13 12:32 -0700
          Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2025-06-13 15:48 -0700
    Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@x.invalid> - 2025-06-13 08:59 +0200
      Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2025-06-13 16:31 -0700
        Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@not.gonna.tell> - 2025-06-14 22:22 +0000
          Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Tim Rentsch <tr.17687@z991.linuxsc.com> - 2025-07-01 09:54 -0700
  Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Bonita Montero <Bonita.Montero@gmail.com> - 2025-06-13 08:00 +0200
    Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@x.invalid> - 2025-06-13 08:47 +0200
      Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Kaz Kylheku <643-408-1753@kylheku.com> - 2025-06-13 16:19 +0000
  Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Louis Krupp <lkrupp@invalid.pssw.com.invalid> - 2025-06-16 06:29 -0600
    Re: Memory protection between compilation units? Mateusz Viste <mateusz@x.invalid> - 2025-06-16 15:01 +0200
  Re: Memory protection between compilation units? olcott <polcott333@gmail.com> - 2025-06-21 15:49 -0500

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