Reason for Segmentation fault


 
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# 1  
Old 10-22-2007
Reason for Segmentation fault

The following program fails with "Segmentation fault" error message, while I try to run in Ubuntu (Debian) Linux m/c. It is not creating any core file, so I could not cross examine it with the debugger. See the comments for much better understanding. Could any one tell me the exact reason why the program is failing?

Code:
int main( ) {
    char *ch; (or) ch = 'A';   // but if it assigned to any string then no segmentation fault
    int *p = (int*) &ch[0];   // or &ch[1], &ch[2], .... ch;      but &ch runs fine
    printf("%c", *p);           // Segmentation Fault: only if you use this print statement
}

# 2  
Old 10-22-2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by royalibrahim
Code:
   char *ch; (or) ch = 'A';   // but if it assigned to any string then no segmentation fault

It's not clear what your actual code is. If you do not assign a value to the character pointer "ch", then it is pointing to an undefined location in memory and so it is not surprising that this would error. If you assign 'A' to ch, you are assigning the hex value of 'A' to the POINTER, which probably is not pointing to a valid memory location.
# 3  
Old 10-25-2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by royalibrahim
The following program fails with "Segmentation fault" error message, while I try to run in Ubuntu (Debian) Linux m/c. It is not creating any core file, so I could not cross examine it with the debugger. See the comments for much better understanding. Could any one tell me the exact reason why the program is failing?

Code:
int main( ) {
    char *ch; (or) ch = 'A';   // but if it assigned to any string then no segmentation fault
    int *p = (int*) &ch[0];   // or &ch[1], &ch[2], .... ch;      but &ch runs fine
    printf("%c", *p);           // Segmentation Fault: only if you use this print statement 
}

Well, i would say you're attempting to print a char from some odd pointer value (ptr on ptr on stack, huh ?) you got from an uninitialized var which is char *ch and ... thus accessing outside your 'legal' space therefore the core.
You attending some security course on coding and braging about it or just goofing around Smilie lol me just joking
# 4  
Old 10-25-2007
Code:
int main( ) {
    ch = 'A';  
 int *p = (int*) &ch[0];

First it wouldn't have compiled.

It would have thrown a compile time error, ' ch ' should be a pointer or an array.
# 5  
Old 10-25-2007
Smilie Smilie

Its not crashing in my system
Code:
#include <stdio.h>

int main() {
  char *ch;
  int *p = (int*) &ch[0];
  printf("%c\n", *p);
  return 0;
}

I get
Code:
 U

as the output
# 6  
Old 10-25-2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by matrixmadhan
Smilie Smilie

Its not crashing in my system
Then the bit of memory that 'p' ends up pointing to has the contents 0x55.

If you have an uninitialised pointer it is just that, uninitialised, and will have the contents of whatever memory was at that point in the stack. As luck would have it, the &ch[0] did not trap and neither did accessing p.
# 7  
Old 10-25-2007
Quote:
Originally Posted by porter
Then the bit of memory that 'p' ends up pointing to has the contents 0x55.

If you have an uninitialised pointer it is just that, uninitialised, and will have the contents of whatever memory was at that point in the stack. As luck would have it, the &ch[0] did not trap and neither did accessing p.
Yes exactly as you had said.

And with this argument it is not guaranteed that the code would never crash.

To simulate that I could spawn this code between several process so that there could be an instance in the stack frame where there would be no value pointed to by ' p ' and ultimately crashing
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