Re: Buffer overflows. was Re: EMERGENCY: new remote root exploit

[geoffk () DISCUS ANU EDU AU (Geoffrey KEATING)]

> Date:         Fri, 17 Jul 1998 15:49:02 -0700
> From: Craig Spannring <cts () INTERNETCDS COM>

> The responses I've gotten can be grouped into the following broad
> categories-
>
>    1)  Life would be good if we eliminated C and we will.
>    2)  Life would be good if we eliminated C, but we can't.
>    3)  C is the only language fast enough.
>    3)  Eliminating buffer overflows is nice, but won't solve most of
>        the problems.
>    3)  You can write safe code in C using strncpy, snprintf, et al.
>    4)  Only morons write code with buffer overflows
>    5)  Modula-2 and Ada suck and you do you.

You missed one:

     5) Modula-2 and Ada are just as insecure if you turn off array
        bounds checking.

The language is not the problem; it's the absence of array bounds
checking.  There are a number of C compilers that will check your
bounds for you, there's even a modified gcc that will do this.

--
Geoff Keating <Geoff.Keating () anu edu au>