The product sets a pointer to a specific address other than NULL or 0.
Using a fixed address is not portable, because that address will probably not be valid in all environments or platforms.

Indirect

Implementation

Integrity
Confidentiality
Availability
Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands
If one executes code at a known location, an attacker might be able to inject code there beforehand.

Availability
DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
Reduce Maintainability
Reduce Reliability
If the code is ported to another platform or environment, the pointer is likely to be invalid and cause a crash.

Confidentiality
Integrity
Read Memory
Modify Memory
The data at a known pointer location can be easily read or influenced by an attacker.

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.)

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.

Implementation
Never set a pointer to a fixed address.

This code assumes a particular function will always be found at a particular address. It assigns a pointer to that address and calls the function.

int (*pt2Function) (float, char, char)=0x08040000;int result2 = (*pt2Function) (12, 'a', 'b');
// Here we can inject code to execute.

The same function may not always be found at the same memory address. This could lead to a crash, or an attacker may alter the memory at the expected address, leading to arbitrary code execution.

Memory Management

Memory

INT36-C
Converting a pointer to integer or integer to pointer
Imprecise

SFP1
Glitch in computation

Allowed
This CWE entry is at the Variant 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.

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2006-12-15
Draft 5
2006-12-15

Eric Dalci
Cigital
2008-07-01
updated Time_of_Introduction

KDM Analytics
2008-08-01
added/updated white box definitions

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2008-09-08
updated Applicable_Platforms, Description, Relationships, Other_Notes, Weakness_Ordinalities

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2008-11-24
updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2009-03-10
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2009-07-27
updated Common_Consequences, Description, Other_Notes

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2011-06-01
updated Common_Consequences

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2011-09-13
updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2012-05-11
updated Demonstrative_Examples, Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2014-07-30
updated Relationships, Taxonomy_Mappings

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2017-11-08
updated Applicable_Platforms, Taxonomy_Mappings, White_Box_Definitions

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2019-01-03
updated Relationships

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2021-03-15
updated Common_Consequences, Weakness_Ordinalities

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-01-31
updated Description

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-04-27
updated Relationships, Time_of_Introduction, Type

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2023-06-29
updated Mapping_Notes

CWE Content Team
MITRE
2024-02-29
4.14
2024-02-29
updated Demonstrative_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