The product accesses or uses a pointer that has not been initialized.

If the pointer contains an uninitialized value, then the value might not point to a valid memory location. This could cause the product to read from or write to unexpected memory locations, leading to a denial of service. If the uninitialized pointer is used as a function call, then arbitrary functions could be invoked. If an attacker can influence the portion of uninitialized memory that is contained in the pointer, this weakness could be leveraged to execute code or perform other attacks.
Depending on memory layout, associated memory management behaviors, and product operation, the attacker might be able to influence the contents of the uninitialized pointer, thus gaining more fine-grained control of the memory location to be accessed.

Resultant

Implementation

Confidentiality
Read Memory
If the uninitialized pointer is used in a read operation, an attacker might be able to read sensitive portions of memory.

Availability
DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
If the uninitialized pointer references a memory location that is not accessible to the product, or points to a location that is "malformed" (such as NULL) or larger than expected by a read or write operation, then a crash may occur.

Integrity
Confidentiality
Availability
Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
If the uninitialized pointer is used in a function call, or points to unexpected data in a write operation, then code execution may be possible.

Automated Static Analysis
Automated static analysis, commonly referred to as Static Application Security Testing (SAST), can find some instances of this weakness by analyzing source code (or binary/compiled code) without having to execute it. Typically, this is done by building a model of data flow and control flow, then searching for potentially-vulnerable patterns that connect "sources" (origins of input) with "sinks" (destinations where the data interacts with external components, a lower layer such as the OS, etc.)
High

Automated Dynamic Analysis
Use tools that are integrated during
compilation to insert runtime error-checking mechanisms
related to memory safety errors, such as AddressSanitizer
(ASan) for C/C++ [REF-1518].
Moderate
Crafted inputs are necessary to
reach the code containing the error, such as generated
by fuzzers. Also, these tools may reduce performance,
and they only report the error condition - not the
original mistake that led to the
error.

CVE-2024-32878
LLM product has a free of an uninitialized pointer
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2024-32878

CVE-2019-3836
Chain: secure communications library does not initialize a local variable for a data structure (CWE-456), leading to access of an uninitialized pointer (CWE-824).
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2019-3836

CVE-2018-14641
Chain: C union member is not initialized (CWE-456), leading to access of invalid pointer (CWE-824)
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-14641

CVE-2010-0211
chain: unchecked return value (CWE-252) leads to free of invalid, uninitialized pointer (CWE-824).
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2010-0211

CVE-2009-2768
Pointer in structure is not initialized, leading to NULL pointer dereference (CWE-476) and system crash.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2009-2768

CVE-2009-1721
Free of an uninitialized pointer.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2009-1721

CVE-2009-1415
Improper handling of invalid signatures leads to free of invalid pointer.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2009-1415

CVE-2009-0846
Invalid encoding triggers free of uninitialized pointer.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2009-0846

CVE-2009-0040
Crafted PNG image leads to free of uninitialized pointer.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2009-0040

CVE-2008-2934
Crafted GIF image leads to free of uninitialized pointer.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2008-2934

CVE-2007-4682
Access of uninitialized pointer might lead to code execution.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2007-4682

CVE-2007-4639
Step-based manipulation: invocation of debugging function before the primary initialization function leads to access of an uninitialized pointer and code execution.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2007-4639

CVE-2007-4000
Unchecked return values can lead to a write to an uninitialized pointer.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2007-4000

CVE-2007-2442
zero-length input leads to free of uninitialized pointer.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2007-2442

CVE-2007-1213
Crafted font leads to uninitialized function pointer.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2007-1213

CVE-2006-6143
Uninitialized function pointer in freed memory is invoked
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2006-6143

CVE-2006-4175
LDAP server mishandles malformed BER queries, leading to free of uninitialized memory
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2006-4175

CVE-2006-0054
Firewall can crash with certain ICMP packets that trigger access of an uninitialized pointer.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2006-0054

CVE-2003-1201
LDAP server does not initialize members of structs, which leads to free of uninitialized pointer if an LDAP request fails.
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2003-1201

Memory Management

Memory

Allowed
This CWE entry is at the Base level of abstraction, which is a preferred level of abstraction for mapping to the root causes of vulnerabilities.
Carefully read both the name and description to ensure that this mapping is an appropriate fit. Do not try to 'force' a mapping to a lower-level Base/Variant simply to comply with this preferred level of abstraction.

There are close relationships between incorrect pointer dereferences and other weaknesses related to buffer operations. There may not be sufficient community agreement regarding these relationships. Further study is needed to determine when these relationships are chains, composites, perspective/layering, or other types of relationships. As of September 2010, most of the relationships are being captured as chains.
Many weaknesses related to pointer dereferences fall under the general term of "memory corruption" or "memory safety." As of September 2010, there is no commonly-used terminology that covers the lower-level variants.

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2010-09-22
1.10
2010-09-27

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2012-05-11
updated References

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2015-12-07
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2020-02-24
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2020-08-20
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2020-12-10
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2022-04-28
updated Research_Gaps

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-01-31
updated Common_Consequences, Description

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-04-27
updated Detection_Factors, Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-06-29
updated Mapping_Notes

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2024-07-16
4.15
2024-07-16
updated Observed_Examples

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2025-04-03
4.17
2025-04-03
updated Applicable_Platforms, Observed_Examples

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2025-09-09
4.18
2025-09-09
updated Affected_Resources, Functional_Areas

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2025-12-11
4.19
2025-12-11
updated Applicable_Platforms, Detection_Factors, References, Time_of_Introduction, Weakness_Ordinalities