Regression in read csv causing segfault for invalid file input

doc/source/whatsnew/v1.4.2.rst

@@ -15,6 +15,7 @@ including other versions of pandas.
 Fixed regressions
 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
 - Fixed regression in :meth:`DataFrame.drop` and :meth:`Series.drop` when :class:`Index` had extension dtype and duplicates (:issue:`45860`)
+- Fixed regression in :func:`read_csv` killing python process when invalid file input was given for ``engine="c"`` (:issue:`45957`)
 - Fixed memory performance regression in :meth:`Series.fillna` when called on a :class:`DataFrame` column with ``inplace=True`` (:issue:`46149`)
 - Provided an alternative solution for passing custom Excel formats in :meth:`.Styler.to_excel`, which was a regression based on stricter CSS validation. Examples available in the documentation for :meth:`.Styler.format` (:issue:`46152`)
 -

pandas/io/parsers/readers.py

@@ -1710,6 +1710,10 @@ def _make_engine(
             assert self.handles is not None
             f = self.handles.handle
 
+        elif not engine == "python":
+            msg = f"Invalid file path or buffer object type: {type(f)}"
+            raise ValueError(msg)
+
         try:
             return mapping[engine](f, **self.options)
         except Exception:

pandas/tests/io/parser/test_c_parser_only.py

@@ -680,3 +680,10 @@ def test_float_precision_options(c_parser_only):
 
     with pytest.raises(ValueError, match=msg):
         parser.read_csv(StringIO(s), float_precision="junk")
+
+
+def test_invalid_file_inputs(c_parser_only):
+    # GH#45957
+    parser = c_parser_only
+    with pytest.raises(ValueError, match="Invalid"):
+        parser.read_csv([])