CERT C is a really good standard and book. But there's really no reason to read a book. It's very simple if you follow these steps.

Step 1. NO CONSTANT NUMBERS! All constants should be a define macro or a constant. This will allow you to change code without overflows and having to update the number in 20 places and not knowing what number to use when looping through.

Step 2. SESE(RAII in c++, but most use SESE even in c++). SINGLE ENTRY SINGLE EXIT. Your code should look like

" int *ptr = foo(); if(ptr == nullptr) DEBUG_PRINT("FAILED ALLOCATING PTR IN __FILE__ @ __LINE__) goto exit;

EXIT: if(ptr) free(ptr); .... "

So any allocations you cleanup in exit. This way you won't miss it with wierd control flows. This is reccomended by all cert c standards.

Step 3: If you can, there's analyzers you can use that will point out all bugs by annotating your code. SAL is arguable the best in the industry and you can catch pretty much all bugs.

Step 4: Even without an analyzer, you should be looking at all warnings and either adding a compiler macro to ignore it, or fixing whats causing it.