Memset (according to the c++ reference) is supposed to: "Sets the first num bytes of the block of memory pointed by ptr to the specified value (interpreted as a

Memset (according to the c++ reference) is supposed to: "Sets the first num bytes of the block of memory pointed by ptr to the specified value (interpreted as an unsigned char)." So, give it a pointer to some memory, give it a value and the number of bytes you want to set and it'll go wild. In this case, memset was just blindly dropping in zeroes into the memory block