What’s wrong with this code, part 26 – a real-world example

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This is an example of a real-world bug that was recently fixed in an unreleased Microsoft product.  I was told about the bug because it involved the PlaySound API (and thus they asked me to code review the fix), but it could happen with any application.

 static DWORD WINAPI _PlayBeep(__in void* pv)
{
    UNREFERENCED_PARAMETER(pv);
    PlaySound(L".Default"NULL, SND_SYNC | SND_ALIAS);
    return 0;
}

LRESULT WndProc(...)
{
    :
    :
    case WM_KEYDOWN:
        if (!_AcceptInputKeys(wParam, lParam))
        {
            QueueUserWorkItem(_PlayBeep, NULL, 0);
        }
        break;
}

 

This is actual code from inside the client side of a client/server component in Windows that was attempting to “beep” on invalid input (I’ve changed the code slightly to hide the actual origin and undoubtedly introduced issues).  And it has a whopper of a bug in it.

Given the simplicity of the code above, to get the answer right, it’s not enough to say what’s wrong with the code (the problem should be blindingly obvious).  You also need to be able to explain why this is so bad (in other words, what breaks when you do this).

 

Bonus points if you can identify the fix that was eventually applied.