Check the result of two bfd_alloc calls in elf.c
Project / Subsystem
binutils / binutils
Date
2026-07-07
Proposer
Alan Modra <amodra@gmail.com>
Source type
public_inbox
Consensus
Proposed
Sentiment
—/10
Technical tradeoffs
- • Adding null checks increases code verbosity slightly but significantly improves stability.
- • Removing unnecessary casts can improve code clarity and potentially avoid subtle type-related issues.
All attributes
- project
- binutils
- subsystem
- binutils
- patch_id
- —
- discussion_id
- aky79AMZtaPhprfE@squeak.grove.modra.org
- source_type
- public_inbox
- title
- Check the result of two bfd_alloc calls in elf.c
- headline
- Handle NULL return from bfd_alloc/zalloc in elf.c
- tldr
- Adds checks for NULL return values from bfd_alloc and bfd_zalloc in elf.c to prevent potential crashes.
- proposer
- Alan Modra <amodra@gmail.com>
- consensus
- Proposed
- outcome
- proposed
- sentiment_score
- —
- technical_tradeoffs
-
- • Adding null checks increases code verbosity slightly but significantly improves stability.
- • Removing unnecessary casts can improve code clarity and potentially avoid subtle type-related issues.
- series_id
- —
- series_role
- standalone
- series_parts
- []
- tags
-
- • binutils
- • elf
- • memory management
- • robustness
- • bug fix
- bugzilla_url
- —
- date
- 2026-07-07T00:00:00.000Z
Check the result of two bfd_alloc calls in elf.c
This patch addresses a potential issue in binutils’ elf.c by adding checks for NULL return values from bfd_zalloc and bfd_alloc calls. It also removes unnecessary casts on the return values of these allocation functions and simplifies variable usage in a few cases, aiming to improve robustness.