Editing String (computer science) (section)

=== Security concerns ===
The differing memory layout and storage requirements of strings can affect the security of the program accessing the string data. String representations requiring a terminating character are commonly susceptible to [[buffer overflow]] problems if the terminating character is not present, caused by a coding error or an [[hacker (computer security)|attacker]] deliberately altering the data. String representations adopting a separate length field are also susceptible if the length can be manipulated. In such cases, program code accessing the string data requires [[bounds checking]] to ensure that it does not inadvertently access or change data outside of the string memory limits.

String data is frequently obtained from user input to a program. As such, it is the responsibility of the program to validate the string to ensure that it represents the expected format. Performing [[Improper input validation|limited or no validation]] of user input can cause a program to be vulnerable to [[code injection]] attacks.