Technologies disclosed herein provide one example of a processor that includes a register to store a first encoded pointer for a first memory allocation for an application and circuitry coupled to memory. Size metadata is stored in first bits of the first encoded pointer and first memory address data associated with the first memory allocation is stored in second bits of the first encoded pointer. The circuitry is configured to determine a first memory address of a first marker region in the first memory allocation, obtain current data from the first marker region at the first memory address, compare the current data to a reference marker stored separately from the first memory allocation, and determine that the first memory allocation is in a first state in response to a determination that the current data corresponds to the reference marker.