# V507. Pointer to local array 'X' is stored outside the scope of this array. Such a pointer will become invalid.

The analyzer found a potential error related to storing a pointer of a local array. The warning is generated if the lifetime of an array is less than that of the pointer referring to it.

The first example:

    class MyClass1
    {
      int *m_p;
      void Foo()
      {
        int localArray[33];
        ...
        m_p = localArray;
      }
    };

The localArray array is created in the stack and the localArray array will no longer exist after the Foo() function terminates. However, the pointer to this array will be saved in the m_p variable and can be used by mistake, which will cause an error.

The second example:

    struct CVariable {
      ...
      char  name[64];
    };

    void CRendererContext::RiGeometryV(int n, char *tokens[])
    {
      for (i=0;i<n;i++)
      {
        CVariable  var;
        if (parseVariable(&var, NULL, tokens[i])) {
          tokens[i]  =  var.name;
      }
    }

In this example, the pointer to the array situated in a variable of the CVariable type is saved in an external array. As a result, the "tokens" array will contain pointers to non-existing objects after the function RiGeometryV terminates.

The V507 warning does not always indicate an error. Below is an abridged code fragment that the analyzer considers dangerous although this code is correct:

    png_infop info_ptr = png_create_info_struct(png_ptr);
    ...
    BYTE trans[256];
    info_ptr->trans = trans;
    ...
    png_destroy_write_struct(&png_ptr, &info_ptr);

In this code, the lifetime of the info_ptr object coincides with the lifetime of trans. The object is created inside png_create_info_struct () and destroyed inside png_destroy_write_struct(). The analyzer cannot make out this case and supposes that the png_ptr object comes from outside. Here is an example where the analyzer could be right:

    void Foo()
    {
      png_infop info_ptr;
      info_ptr = GetExternInfoPng();
      BYTE trans[256];
      info_ptr->trans = trans;
    }

This message is similar to V506 message.

This diagnostic is classified as:

CWE-562 CERT-DCL30-C

You can look at examples of errors detected by the V507 diagnostic.