avoid buffer overflow using sprintf?

[Susan Rice]

How can I rewrite this code to avoid the possibility of a
buffer overflow?

sprintf(errbuf, "%s\nError is: %u: %s\n", errmsg, dwErrCode, s );

Here:
errmsg = a string
dwErrCode = a number
s = a string
I do have value 'errbuflen' = length of buffer 'errbuf'.
I'm just not using it.
Is there any easy way? Or is there only the hard way?

[mlimber]

Susan Rice wrote:

How can I rewrite this code to avoid the possibility of a
buffer overflow?

sprintf(errbuf, "%s\nError is: %u: %s\n", errmsg, dwErrCode, s );

Here:
errmsg = a string
dwErrCode = a number
s = a string
I do have value 'errbuflen' = length of buffer 'errbuf'.
I'm just not using it.
Is there any easy way? Or is there only the hard way?

Use std::strings and std::stringstre ams instead:

ostringstream errbuf;
errbuf << errmsg << "\nError is: " << dwErrCode << ':' << s << '\n';

You can retrieve the resulting message with "errbuf.str ()" which, if
needed, can be converted to a C-style string like this:
"errbuf.str().c _str()".

Cheers! --M

[Alf P. Steinbach]

* Susan Rice:

How can I rewrite this code to avoid the possibility of a
buffer overflow?

sprintf(errbuf, "%s\nError is: %u: %s\n", errmsg, dwErrCode, s );

Here:
errmsg = a string
dwErrCode = a number
s = a string
I do have value 'errbuflen' = length of buffer 'errbuf'.
I'm just not using it.
Is there any easy way? Or is there only the hard way?

std::ostringstr eam stream;
stream << errmsg << "\nError is: " << dwErrCode << ": " << s << "\n";
// Do something with stream.str()

Btw., Hungarian notation like the prefix 'dw' is likely to cause you all
kinds of trouble, and reduces readability, without conferring /any/
advantage with modern tools.

--
A: Because it messes up the order in which people normally read text.
Q: Why is it such a bad thing?
A: Top-posting.
Q: What is the most annoying thing on usenet and in e-mail?

[Markus Svilans]

Susan Rice wrote:

How can I rewrite this code to avoid the possibility of a
buffer overflow?

sprintf(errbuf, "%s\nError is: %u: %s\n", errmsg, dwErrCode, s );

Here:
errmsg = a string
dwErrCode = a number
s = a string
I do have value 'errbuflen' = length of buffer 'errbuf'.
I'm just not using it.
Is there any easy way? Or is there only the hard way?

An easy way to do it is with snprintf(), which lets you specify the
maximum number of characters to store in the output buffer. Your code
would become:

snprintf(errbuf , errbuflen, "%s\nError is: %u: %s\n", errmsg,
dwErrCode, s);

If your C library does not snprintf(), you can get a free
implementation here:

http://www.ijs.si/software/snprintf/

Regards,
Markus.