Definition
Checking if a pointer is NULL.
How it Works
Programmatically checking if a pointer is NULL before use.
Considerations
- Pointers should be checked prior to use after they have, or may have been modified.
- Note that it may vary by circumstance whether the caller, or callee is responsible for checking if a pointer is NULL.
- Note: This resource should not be considered a definitive or exhaustive coding guideline.
Implementation perspective
Null Pointer Checking should be treated as a technical defensive capability rather than a product checkbox. In practice, teams should define the protected scope, the conditions under which the technique acts, and the observable evidence that demonstrates the intended behavior. For this technique, likely engineering context includes the relevant system, activity, and evidence sources.
Use the technique to increase the effort, prerequisites, or constraints an adversary must overcome before exploitation or misuse succeeds.
Questions to ask
- Which component, configuration, credential, interface, or behavior is being hardened?
- What secure baseline or policy defines the intended state?
- How are exceptions approved, time-limited, and reviewed?
- How is the hardened state verified after deployment and significant change?
Evidence and validation
- Approved hardening standards and configuration baselines
- Automated configuration or integrity assessment results
- Exception records with owners, rationale, and expiration dates
- Test results demonstrating that the intended restriction is enforced
Common failure patterns
- A secure setting is documented but not enforced consistently across the environment.
- Hardening breaks required functions and is permanently weakened through undocumented exceptions.
- Teams measure deployment of a product rather than verification of the hardened condition.
This implementation perspective is original Bare Metal Cyber educational content. It does not replace the official D3FEND definition or establish that a specific product implements the technique.
Technique hierarchy
Top-level family
Parent techniques
Direct child techniques
None listed at this level.
Artifacts and ontology entities
These relationships describe how D3FEND connects a defensive technique to artifacts or other ontology entities. They describe graph semantics, not a product certification.
Explicit technique relationships
Authoritative sources
- Open this technique on the official D3FEND website ↗
- Open the official ontology resources ↗
- SEI CERT C Coding Standard ↗Software Engineering Institute · GuidelineReference
- CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference ↗MITRE · ExternalKnowledgeBase
- SEI CERT C Coding Standard ↗Software Engineering Institute · GuidelineReference
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