Post #1398719
2025-02-18 21:01 UTC
periodic reminder that
"but we have so much old code, surely adding more analyzers to catch bugs in all the old code is much higher impact than piecemeal writing new code in a memory-safe language"
has been repeatedly demonstrated to be a falsehood by the android team
https://security.googleblog.com/2024/09/eliminating-memory-safety-vulnerabilities-Android.html
Replies (2)
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@Gankra@toot.cat 2025-02-18 21:20
it makes absolute intuitive sense that all your memory safety bugs would be uniformly distributed throughout your code but if your codebase is like that it should be declared a superfund site and quarantined from the public because that means you have hundreds of ancient buffer overflows that never get fixed
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@edmcbane@hachyderm.io 2025-02-18 22:34
@Gankra@toot.cat don’t forget those analyzers “…need to detect when people do things like this on purpose, and they need to SHUT THE ^&% UP about the fact that wrap-around happens.” I guess given devs can’t be bothered to formally express their intent (neither in rust or C), and tools not being omniscient, the only choice is to lower our expectations.