Full Disclosure mailing list archives

Re: automated vulnerability testing


From: Chris Adams <chris () improbable org>
Date: Sat, 29 Nov 2003 12:30:09 -0800

On Nov 29, 2003, at 2:47, Choe.Sung Cont. PACAF CSS/SCHP wrote:
Bill Royds wrote:
If you are truly interested in security, you won't use C as the
programming language.
You must be shitting me.. C does have its inherent flaws but that doesn't mean that there cannot be a secure application written in C. This statement
represents FUD at its highest level.

Name a single non-trivial application written in C which has not had at least one of the classic C security problems.

That's why we need different languages: even if you're one of the extraordinarily small number of programmers who can write C without bugs, there's abundant evidence that the average C programmer cannot be trusted to do so.

The other problem is productivity - C programmers have to write significantly more code to produce equivalent functionality which both increases the opportunity for errors and decreases the time available to find and fix those errors, identify design oversights, etc.

Chris

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