CERT C++ is a set of guidelines for software developers. These guidelines are used for secure coding in C++ language. They were developed following a community-based development process. The guidelines are displayed on the CERT community wiki.
Using these guidelines, you can eliminate constructs with undefined behavior that can lead to unexpected results at runtime and expose security weaknesses.
As of July 10, 2019, the CERT C++ website, under continuous development, lists 163 rules including 80 CERT C rules that also apply in C++.
Polyspace can check your code against the CERT C++ standard. Use the Check SEI CERT-C++ (-cert-cpp) analysis option to activate subsets of the rules. See the documentation of the Polyspace
Bug Finder™ or Polyspace
Bug Finder
Server™ products for more information on the analysis options.
CERT C++: DCL30-C | Declare objects with appropriate storage durations |
CERT C++: DCL39-C | Avoid information leakage in structure padding |
CERT C++: DCL40-C | Do not create incompatible declarations of the same function or object |
CERT C++: DCL50-CPP | Do not define a C-style variadic function |
CERT C++: DCL51-CPP | Do not declare or define a reserved identifier |
CERT C++: DCL52-CPP | Never qualify a reference type with const or volatile |
CERT C++: DCL53-CPP | Do not write syntactically ambiguous declarations |
CERT C++: DCL54-CPP | Overload allocation and deallocation functions as a pair in the same scope |
CERT C++: DCL57-CPP | Do not let exceptions escape from destructors or deallocation functions |
CERT C++: DCL58-CPP | Do not modify the standard namespaces |
CERT C++: DCL59-CPP | Do not define an unnamed namespace in a header file |
CERT C++: DCL60-CPP | Obey the one-definition rule |
CERT C++: EXP34-C | Do not dereference null pointers |
CERT C++: EXP35-C | Do not modify objects with temporary lifetime |
CERT C++: EXP36-C | Do not cast pointers into more strictly aligned pointer types |
CERT C++: EXP37-C | Call functions with the correct number and type of arguments |
CERT C++: EXP39-C | Do not access a variable through a pointer of an incompatible type |
CERT C++: EXP42-C | Do not compare padding data |
CERT C++: EXP45-C | Do not perform assignments in selection statements |
CERT C++: EXP46-C | Do not use a bitwise operator with a Boolean-like operand |
CERT C++: EXP47-C | Do not call va_arg with an argument of the incorrect type |
CERT C++: EXP50-CPP | Do not depend on the order of evaluation for side effects |
CERT C++: EXP52-CPP | Do not rely on side effects in unevaluated operands |
CERT C++: EXP53-CPP | Do not read uninitialized memory |
CERT C++: EXP54-CPP | Do not access an object outside of its lifetime |
CERT C++: EXP55-CPP | Do not access a cv-qualified object through a cv-unqualified type |
CERT C++: EXP57-CPP | Do not cast or delete pointers to incomplete classes |
CERT C++: EXP58-CPP | Pass an object of the correct type to va_start |
CERT C++: EXP59-CPP | Use offsetof() on valid types and members |
CERT C++: EXP61-CPP | A lambda object must not outlive any of its reference captured objects |
CERT C++: EXP63-CPP | Do not rely on the value of a moved-from object |
CERT C++: INT30-C | Ensure that unsigned integer operations do not wrap |
CERT C++: INT31-C | Ensure that integer conversions do not result in lost or misinterpreted data |
CERT C++: INT32-C | Ensure that operations on signed integers do not result in overflow |
CERT C++: INT33-C | Ensure that division and remainder operations do not result in divide-by-zero errors |
CERT C++: INT34-C | Do not shift an expression by a negative number of bits or by greater than or equal to the number of bits that exist in the operand |
CERT C++: INT35-C | Use correct integer precisions |
CERT C++: INT36-C | Converting a pointer to integer or integer to pointer |
CERT C++: ARR30-C | Do not form or use out-of-bounds pointers or array subscripts |
CERT C++: ARR37-C | Do not add or subtract an integer to a pointer to a non-array object |
CERT C++: ARR38-C | Guarantee that library functions do not form invalid pointers |
CERT C++: ARR39-C | Do not add or subtract a scaled integer to a pointer |
CERT C++: CTR50-CPP | Guarantee that container indices and iterators are within the valid range |
CERT C++: STR30-C | Do not attempt to modify string literals |
CERT C++: STR31-C | Guarantee that storage for strings has sufficient space for character data and the null terminator |
CERT C++: STR32-C | Do not pass a non-null-terminated character sequence to a library function that expects a string |
CERT C++: STR34-C | Cast characters to unsigned char before converting to larger integer sizes |
CERT C++: STR37-C | Arguments to character-handling functions must be representable as an unsigned char |
CERT C++: STR38-C | Do not confuse narrow and wide character strings and functions |
CERT C++: STR50-CPP | Guarantee that storage for strings has sufficient space for character data and the null terminator |
CERT C++: STR53-CPP | Range check element access |
CERT C++: MEM30-C | Do not access freed memory |
CERT C++: MEM31-C | Free dynamically allocated memory when no longer needed |
CERT C++: MEM34-C | Only free memory allocated dynamically |
CERT C++: MEM35-C | Allocate sufficient memory for an object |
CERT C++: MEM36-C | Do not modify the alignment of objects by calling realloc() |
CERT C++: MEM50-CPP | Do not access freed memory |
CERT C++: MEM51-CPP | Properly deallocate dynamically allocated resources |
CERT C++: MEM52-CPP | Detect and handle memory allocation errors |
CERT C++: MEM54-CPP | Provide placement new with properly aligned pointers to sufficient storage capacity |
CERT C++: MEM55-CPP | Honor replacement dynamic storage management requirements |
CERT C++: MEM56-CPP | Do not store an already-owned pointer value in an unrelated smart pointer |
CERT C++: MEM57-CPP | Avoid using default operator new for over-aligned types |
CERT C++: FIO30-C | Exclude user input from format strings |
CERT C++: FIO32-C | Do not perform operations on devices that are only appropriate for files |
CERT C++: FIO34-C | Distinguish between characters read from a file and EOF or WEOF |
CERT C++: FIO37-C | Do not assume that fgets() or fgetws() returns a nonempty string when successful |
CERT C++: FIO38-C | Do not copy a FILE object |
CERT C++: FIO39-C | Do not alternately input and output from a stream without an intervening flush or positioning call |
CERT C++: FIO40-C | Reset strings on fgets() or fgetws() failure |
CERT C++: FIO41-C | Do not call getc(), putc(), getwc(), or putwc() with a stream argument that has side effects |
CERT C++: FIO42-C | Close files when they are no longer needed |
CERT C++: FIO44-C | Only use values for fsetpos() that are returned from fgetpos() |
CERT C++: FIO45-C | Avoid TOCTOU race conditions while accessing files |
CERT C++: FIO46-C | Do not access a closed file |
CERT C++: FIO47-C | Use valid format strings |
CERT C++: FIO50-CPP | Do not alternately input and output from a file stream without an intervening positioning call |
CERT C++: FIO51-CPP | Close files when they are no longer needed |
CERT C++: ERR30-C | Set errno to zero before calling a library function known to set errno, and check errno only after the function returns a value indicating failure |
CERT C++: ERR32-C | Do not rely on indeterminate values of errno |
CERT C++: ERR33-C | Detect and handle standard library errors |
CERT C++: ERR34-C | Detect errors when converting a string to a number |
CERT C++: ERR50-CPP | Do not abruptly terminate the program |
CERT C++: ERR51-CPP | Handle all exceptions |
CERT C++: ERR52-CPP | Do not use setjmp() or longjmp() |
CERT C++: ERR53-CPP | Do not reference base classes or class data members in a constructor or destructor function-try-block handler |
CERT C++: ERR54-CPP | Catch handlers should order their parameter types from most derived to least derived |
CERT C++: ERR55-CPP | Honor exception specifications |
CERT C++: ERR58-CPP | Handle all exceptions thrown before main() begins executing |
CERT C++: ERR61-CPP | Catch exceptions by lvalue reference |
CERT C++: OOP50-CPP | Do not invoke virtual functions from constructors or destructors |
CERT C++: OOP51-CPP | Do not slice derived objects |
CERT C++: OOP52-CPP | Do not delete a polymorphic object without a virtual destructor |
CERT C++: OOP53-CPP | Write constructor member initializers in the canonical order |
CERT C++: OOP54-CPP | Gracefully handle self-copy assignment |
CERT C++: OOP57-CPP | Prefer special member functions and overloaded operators to C Standard Library functions |
CERT C++: OOP58-CPP | Copy operations must not mutate the source object |
CERT C++: CON33-C | Avoid race conditions when using library functions |
CERT C++: CON37-C | Do not call signal() in a multithreaded program |
CERT C++: CON40-C | Do not refer to an atomic variable twice in an expression |
CERT C++: CON41-C | Wrap functions that can fail spuriously in a loop |
CERT C++: CON43-C | Do not allow data races in multithreaded code |
CERT C++: CON50-CPP | Do not destroy a mutex while it is locked |
CERT C++: CON52-CPP | Prevent data races when accessing bit-fields from multiple threads |
CERT C++: CON53-CPP | Avoid deadlock by locking in a predefined order |
CERT C++: CON54-CPP | Wrap functions that can spuriously wake up in a loop |
CERT C++: ENV30-C | Do not modify the object referenced by the return value of certain functions |
CERT C++: ENV31-C | Do not rely on an environment pointer following an operation that may invalidate it |
CERT C++: ENV32-C | All exit handlers must return normally |
CERT C++: ENV33-C | Do not call system() |
CERT C++: ENV34-C | Do not store pointers returned by certain functions |
CERT C++: FLP30-C | Do not use floating-point variables as loop counters |
CERT C++: FLP32-C | Prevent or detect domain and range errors in math functions |
CERT C++: FLP34-C | Ensure that floating-point conversions are within range of the new type |
CERT C++: FLP36-C | Preserve precision when converting integral values to floating-point type |
CERT C++: FLP37-C | Do not use object representations to compare floating-point values |
CERT C++: MSC30-C | Do not use the rand() function for generating pseudorandom numbers |
CERT C++: MSC32-C | Properly seed pseudorandom number generators |
CERT C++: MSC33-C | Do not pass invalid data to the asctime() function |
CERT C++: MSC37-C | Ensure that control never reaches the end of a non-void function |
CERT C++: MSC38-C | Do not treat a predefined identifier as an object if it might only be implemented as a macro |
CERT C++: MSC39-C | Do not call va_arg() on a va_list that has an indeterminate value |
CERT C++: MSC40-C | Do not violate constraints |
CERT C++: MSC41-C | Never hard code sensitive information |
CERT C++: MSC50-CPP | Do not use std::rand() for generating pseudorandom numbers |
CERT C++: MSC51-CPP | Ensure your random number generator is properly seeded |
CERT C++: MSC52-CPP | Value-returning functions must return a value from all exit paths |
CERT C++: MSC53-CPP | Do not return from a function declared [[noreturn]] |
CERT C++: PRE30-C | Do not create a universal character name through concatenation |
CERT C++: PRE31-C | Avoid side effects in arguments to unsafe macros |
CERT C++: PRE32-C | Do not use preprocessor directives in invocations of function-like macros |
CERT C++: SIG31-C | Do not access shared objects in signal handlers |
CERT C++: SIG34-C | Do not call signal() from within interruptible signal handlers |
CERT C++: SIG35-C | Do not return from a computational exception signal handler |