11 Classes [class]

11.9 Member access control [class.access]

11.9.4 Protected member access [class.protected]

1
#
An additional access check beyond those described earlier in [class.access] is applied when a non-static data member or non-static member function is a protected member of its naming class ([class.access.base]).113
As described earlier, access to a protected member is granted because the reference occurs in a friend or member of some class C.
If the access is to form a pointer to member ([expr.unary.op]), the nested-name-specifier shall denote C or a class derived from C.
All other accesses involve a (possibly implicit) object expression ([expr.ref]).
In this case, the class of the object expression shall be C or a class derived from C.
[Example
: 
class B {
protected:
  int i;
  static int j;
};

class D1 : public B {
};

class D2 : public B {
  friend void fr(B*,D1*,D2*);
  void mem(B*,D1*);
};

void fr(B* pb, D1* p1, D2* p2) {
  pb->i = 1;                    // error
  p1->i = 2;                    // error
  p2->i = 3;                    // OK (access through a D2)
  p2->B::i = 4;                 // OK (access through a D2, even though naming class is B)
  int B::* pmi_B = &B::i;       // error
  int B::* pmi_B2 = &D2::i;     // OK (type of &D2​::​i is int B​::​*)
  B::j = 5;                     // error: not a friend of naming class B
  D2::j = 6;                    // OK (because refers to static member)
}

void D2::mem(B* pb, D1* p1) {
  pb->i = 1;                    // error
  p1->i = 2;                    // error
  i = 3;                        // OK (access through this)
  B::i = 4;                     // OK (access through this, qualification ignored)
  int B::* pmi_B = &B::i;       // error
  int B::* pmi_B2 = &D2::i;     // OK
  j = 5;                        // OK (because j refers to static member)
  B::j = 6;                     // OK (because B​::​j refers to static member)
}

void g(B* pb, D1* p1, D2* p2) {
  pb->i = 1;                    // error
  p1->i = 2;                    // error
  p2->i = 3;                    // error
}
— end example
]
113)
This additional check does not apply to other members, e.g., static data members or enumerator member constants.
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