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Uninitialized Storage Pointers

This page explains the risks associated with uninitialized storage pointers in smart contracts and provides an example in Lua.

Description​

Uninitialized storage pointers refer to variables that are declared but not initialized before use. In certain languages, this can cause unintentional data corruption by inadvertently referencing unexpected storage locations, leading to unpredictable behavior in the contract.

Impact on Smart Contracts​

In a smart contract context, using uninitialized storage pointers can overwrite existing data, potentially leading to lost or altered critical information. Attackers could exploit this to corrupt the contract’s state or execute unintended functionality.

Lua Code Example​

-- Uninitialized storage pointer example in Lua
local dataStorage = {}

function writeData(index, value)
    -- Uninitialized storage could lead to accidental data overwrite
    dataStorage[index] = value
end

print("Data at index 1:", dataStorage[1])
writeData(1, "Critical Data")
print("Data at index 1 after overwrite:", dataStorage[1])