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ZeroVolatileMemory function

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The ZeroVolatileMemory function fills a block of memory with zeros.

Important

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Parameters

Param Destination [out]

A pointer to the starting address of the block of memory to fill with zeros.

Param Length [in]

The size of the block of memory to fill with zeros, in bytes.

Syntax

volatile void*
  ZeroVolatileMemory (
    _Out_writes_bytes_all_(Length) volatile void* Destination,
    SIZE_T Length
  );

Remarks

This API is a convenience wrapper around FillVolatileMemory. See the remarks of FillVolatileMemory for more information.

Note

This function works on all versions of Windows, not just the latest. You need to consume the latest SDK to get the function declaration from the winbase.h header. You also need the library (volatileaccessu.lib) from the latest SDK. However, the resulting binary will run fine on older versions of Windows.

Example

UCHAR SensitiveData[100];

// Imagine we temporarily store some sensitive cryptographic
// material in a buffer.

StoreCryptographicKey(&SensitiveData);
DoCryptographicOperation(&SensitiveData);

// Now that we are done using the sensitive data we want to
// erase it from the stack. We cannot call FillMemory because
// if the compiler realizes that "SensitiveData" is not
// referenced again the compiler can remove the call to FillMemory.
// Instead we can call SecureZeroMemory2, ZeroVolatileMemory, or FillVolatileMemory
// (the former two are convenience wrappers around the latter). These
// calls will not be optimized away by the compiler.
// Note that SecureZeroMemory2 performs better than the old
// SecureZeroMemory API.

ZeroVolatileMemory(&SensitiveData, sizeof(SensitiveData));

Requirements

Minimum supported client: Windows 11 Insider Preview Build TBD

Header: winbase.h (include Winbase.h)

Kernel-mode library: volatileaccessk.lib

User-mode library: volatileaccessu.lib

See also