Returning from a finally block suppresses the propagation of any unhandled Throwable which was thrown in the try or catch block.

Noncompliant Code Example

public static void main(String[] args) {
  try {
    doSomethingWhichThrowsException();
    System.out.println("OK");   // incorrect "OK" message is printed
  } catch (RuntimeException e) {
    System.out.println("ERROR");  // this message is not shown
  }
}

public static void doSomethingWhichThrowsException() {
  try {
    throw new RuntimeException();
  } finally {
    /* ... */
    return;      // Non-Compliant - prevents the RuntimeException from being propagated
  }
}

public static void main(String[] args) {
  try {
    doSomethingWhichThrowsException();
    System.out.println("OK");
  } catch (RuntimeException e) {
    System.out.println("ERROR");  // "ERROR" is printed as expected
  }
}

public static void doSomethingWhichThrowsException() {
  try {
    throw new RuntimeException();
  } finally {
    /* ... */
  }
}

See

• MITRE, CWE-584 - Return Inside Finally Block