Conflicting variable initialization¶

ID: js/variable-initialization-conflict
Kind: problem
Security severity: 
Severity: error
Precision: very-high
Tags:
   - quality
   - reliability
   - correctness
   - external/cwe/cwe-563
Query suites:
   - javascript-code-quality.qls
   - javascript-security-and-quality.qls

Click to see the query in the CodeQL repository

If a variable is declared and initialized twice inside the same variable declaration statement, the second initialization immediately overwrites the first one. This is confusing at best, and probably indicates an underlying bug.

Recommendation¶

Rename the second variable declaration to avoid the conflict. For every use of the variable, examine it to find out whether it is meant to refer to the first or to the second declaration. If it is meant to refer to the second declaration, rename the use as well.

Example¶

In the following example, the variable declaration statement declares and initializes the variable key twice, once to iter[0] and once to iter[1]. The second initialization overwrites the first, so key ends up being set to iter[1].

for (var iter in Iterator(aExtraHeaders)) {
    var key = iter[0], key = iter[1];
    xhr.setRequestHeader(key, value);
}

From context, it is clear that the second declaration is a typo: it should instead declare and initialize the variable value, which is referred to in the next line:

for (var iter in Iterator(aExtraHeaders)) {
    var key = iter[0], value = iter[1];
    xhr.setRequestHeader(key, value);
}

References¶

Ecma International, ECMAScript Language Definition, 5.1 Edition, Section 12.2. ECMA, 2011.
Common Weakness Enumeration: CWE-563.

GeezerVison

Conflicting variable initialization¶

Recommendation¶

Example¶

References¶