Task: Memory Corruption

For this practice item, you will need to identify the programming mistake that makes it possible to corrupt memory.

Navigate to the labs/lab-03/tasks/memory-corruption/ folder, and enter support/src/. Inspect the source file segfault.c.

1. What does the program do? (this could be a quiz in the final form)
2. Compile and run it. What happens?
3. Debug the program and find the line that causes the segfault. Note: Although using printf() calls is a viable option, we strongly suggest you use GDB.
4. Fix the program and check your changes by running the checker.sh script in support/tests/.
5. Analyze the corresponding Python and D implementation.

What is the expected result in each case? Why? Run the programs and see what happens.

If you’re having difficulties solving this exercise, go through this reading material.