Strange Return Value - c++

Question

My code,
LPSTR Internal::Gz_GetSystemKey( BOOL SHOW_ERROR, BOOL SHOW_KEY ) {
HW_PROFILE_INFO HwProfInfo;
if (!GetCurrentHwProfile(&HwProfInfo))
{
if(SHOW_ERROR)
Message::Error( "An Internal Error Has Occurred", "Gizmo Message", TRUE );
return NULL;
}
std::string __clean( (char*)HwProfInfo.szHwProfileGuid );
__clean.append( std::string( (char*)HwProfInfo.szHwProfileName ) );
LPSTR neet_key = Crypt::CRC32( Crypt::MD5( (char*)__clean.c_str() ) );
if (SHOW_KEY)
Message::Info( neet_key ); // shows expected result
return neet_key; // returns strange ascii result
};
Gz BOOL Gz_CreateContext( BOOL SHOW_ERROR, BOOL SHOW_KEY ) {
HKEY CHECK; // key result container
BOOL RESULT;
std::wstring neet_key_uni; // must use unicode string in RegSetValueExW
if ( RegOpenKey(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, TEXT("Software\\NEET\\Gizmo\\"), &CHECK) != ERROR_SUCCESS )
goto CREATE_REG_CONTEXT;
else
goto STORE_NEET_KEY;
CREATE_REG_CONTEXT:
if ( RegCreateKeyA( HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "Software\\NEET\\Gizmo\\", &CHECK ) != ERROR_SUCCESS ) {
if( SHOW_ERROR )
Message::Error( "Context Could Not Be Created" );
RESULT = FALSE;
goto END_MACRO;
}
STORE_NEET_KEY:
LPSTR neet_key = Internal::Gz_GetSystemKey( SHOW_ERROR, SHOW_KEY ); // GetSystemKey generates good key, returns weird ascii
Message::Notify( neet_key );
neet_key_uni = std::wstring(neet_key, neet_key+strlen(neet_key));
if ( RegSetValueEx( CHECK, TEXT("Key"), 0, REG_SZ, (const BYTE*)neet_key_uni.c_str(), ( neet_key_uni.size() + 1 ) * sizeof( wchar_t ) ) != ERROR_SUCCESS ) {
if( SHOW_ERROR )
Message::Error( "Context Could Not Be Reached" );
RESULT = FALSE;
goto END_MACRO;
}
RESULT = TRUE;
END_MACRO:
RegCloseKey(CHECK); // safely close registry key
return RESULT;
};
I'm creating a simple PC identification lib for practice, not for commercial use.
Message::Info( neet_key );
Shows
but the actual return value is
Any ideas why? The 'Message' namespace/functions are just message boxes. As for the 'Crypt' namespace/functions, they aren't the issue at hand.

Answer 1

From the comments: Who owns the memory for the 'neet_key'? My guess would be that the 'Message::Info' shows a valid value because whatever memory structure its from is still in memory but when you return its no longer in memory. Therefore the returned value prints rubbish.
This is a common issue for the C++ language. I would highly recommend that you avoid using raw pointers where possible (especially when returning from functions/methods). For strings you could obviously use 'std::string'.