The "Use After Free" issue occurs when a resource, such as memory or an object, is accessed or used after it has been deleted or freed. This can lead to undefined behavior, crashes, or potential security vulnerabilities, as the system may attempt to read or write to memory that is no longer allocated. This problem is common in environments where resources are manually managed, and it is not properly checked before access after deletion.
An attacker might exploit a "use-after-free" vulnerability to gain unauthorized access or corrupt data. For example, after an object has been deleted, the attacker could trigger another operation that attempts to access the now-freed memory. This could lead to memory corruption or even the execution of arbitrary code, depending on the system's vulnerability. In a web application, this could manifest as the attacker accessing deleted session data or resources, potentially bypassing authentication or causing system instability.
