- Accessing an array out of bounds
- Dereferencing pointer NULL
- Dereferencing memory freed
- Dereferencing uninitialized pointers
- Incorrect application of operators "&" (addresses) and "*" (references)
- Formatting errors of specifiers in printf and scanf commands
To debug a core dump, follow these steps:
- Obtain a binary identical to the one that generated the core dump file.
- Use GDB to debug by running:
gdb path/to/the/binary path/to/the/core/dump/file - Retrieve a stack trace at the time of the crash using
btcommand.
A core dump, also known as a memory dump or crash dump, provides a snapshot of a program’s working memory at a specific moment, usually when the program crashes or terminates unexpectedly.
Core dumps in Ubuntu are handled by Apport and can be found in /var/crash/. If needed, core dump files can be deleted by confirming with "YES".