Does malloc() allocate a contiguous block of memory?

Question

I have a piece of code written by a very old school programmer :-) . it goes something like this

typedef struct ts_request
{ 
  ts_request_buffer_header_def header; 
  char                         package[1]; 
} ts_request_def; 

ts_request_def* request_buffer = 
malloc(sizeof(ts_request_def) + (2 * 1024 * 1024));

the programmer basically is working on a buffer overflow concept. I know the code looks dodgy. so my questions are:

1. Does malloc always allocate contiguous block of memory? because in this code if the blocks are not contiguous, the code will fail big time

2. Doing free(request_buffer) , will it free all the bytes allocated by malloc i.e sizeof(ts_request_def) + (2 * 1024 * 1024), or only the bytes of the size of the structure sizeof(ts_request_def)

3. Do you see any evident problems with this approach, I need to discuss this with my boss and would like to point out any loopholes with this approach

Answer 1

To answer your numbered points.

1. Yes.
2. All the bytes. Malloc/free doesn't know or care about the type of the object, just the size.
3. It is strictly speaking undefined behaviour, but a common trick supported by many implementations. See below for other alternatives.

The latest C standard, ISO/IEC 9899:1999 (informally C99), allows flexible array members.

An example of this would be:

int main(void)
{       
    struct { size_t x; char a[]; } *p;
    p = malloc(sizeof *p + 100);
    if (p)
    {
        /* You can now access up to p->a[99] safely */
    }
}

This now standardized feature allowed you to avoid using the common, but non-standard, implementation extension that you describe in your question. Strictly speaking, using a non-flexible array member and accessing beyond its bounds is undefined behaviour, but many implementations document and encourage it.

Furthermore, gcc allows zero-length arrays as an extension. Zero-length arrays are illegal in standard C, but gcc introduced this feature before C99 gave us flexible array members.

In a response to a comment, I will explain why the snippet below is technically undefined behaviour. Section numbers I quote refer to C99 (ISO/IEC 9899:1999)

struct {
    char arr[1];
} *x;
x = malloc(sizeof *x + 1024);
x->arr[23] = 42;

Firstly, 6.5.2.1#2 shows a[i] is identical to (*((a)+(i))), so x->arr[23] is equivalent to (*((x->arr)+(23))). Now, 6.5.6#8 (on the addition of a pointer and an integer) says:

"If both the pointer operand and the result point to elements of the same array object, or one past the last element of the array object, the evaluation shall not produce an overflow; otherwise, the behavior is undefined."

For this reason, because x->arr[23] is not within the array, the behaviour is undefined. You might still think that it's okay because the malloc() implies the array has now been extended, but this is not strictly the case. Informative Annex J.2 (which lists examples of undefined behaviour) provides further clarification with an example:

An array subscript is out of range, even if an object is apparently accessible with the given subscript (as in the lvalue expression a[1][7] given the declaration int a[4][5]) (6.5.6).