Pointer arithmetic can lead to segmentation faults when it causes a pointer to reference memory outside of its allocated space. This typically occurs in two scenarios: when the pointer is incremented beyond the end of an array, or when it’s decremented below the start of an array. In both cases, the pointer ends up referencing unallocated memory, which results in undefined behavior and often leads to a segmentation fault.
In C++, for example, consider an array of integers with five elements. If we create a pointer to the first element and increment it six times, we’ll be pointing to non-existent sixth element. Attempting to access this will likely cause a segmentation fault.
Similarly, if we have a pointer to the fifth element and decrement it six times, we’ll be pointing before the start of the array. Again, attempting to access this will probably result in a segmentation fault.
