Thread: Why is the gets function dangerous?

Greets all,

I've started reading many c books in the past few weeks, and have been enjoying learning them. I followed this one example from a c book, whick demonstrates the system function which is as follows:

Code:

/*This demonstrates the system function*/ 
#include <stdio.h> 
#include <stdlib.h> 
 
int main() 
{ 
    
   /*declare a buffer to hold input*/ 
   char input[40]; 
    
   while(1) 
   { 
     
      puts("\nEnter a system command, blank to exit"); 
      gets(input); 
       
      /*Exit if input == null*/ 
      if(input[0] == '\0') 
      exit; 
 
      /*execute command*/ 
      system(input); 
   } 
   return 0; 
}

Now, it compiles and works fine, but while compiling it say's:

/tmp/ccWRQUCs.o(.text+0x28): the 'gets' function is dangerous and should not be used.

so i got curious, and didn't set and array size for input, and left it as -

Code:

char input[];

and the message about the gets function was not printed onscreen while compiling.

Why does it stop printing the gets warning when not setting a size for input? Why is the gets command so dangerous?


Thankyou very much for your time.
Regards,
Kevin.j

gets() is dangerous because it is possible for the user to crash the program by typing too much into the prompt. it can't detect the end of availiable memory, so if you allocate an amount of memory too small for the purpose, it can cause a seg fault and crash. sometimes it seems very unlikely that a user will type 1000 letters into a prompt meant for a person's name, but as programmers we need to make our programs bulletproof. (it may also be a security risk if a user can crash a system program by sending too much data).

fgets() allows you to specify how many characters are taken out of the standard input buffer, so they don't overrun the variable.

Thankyou for your time & a quick responce.

So having the gets() will always be a potential hazard which could lead to a buffer overflow as it doesn't detect the end of availiable memory...

fgets() allows you to specify how many characters are taken out of the standard input buffer, so they don't overrun the variable.

I will keep that in mind.

Thank you,
Regards,
Kevin