NoratriebSep 26, 2024

it would be very nice for the world and industry if what the C++ committee said here was true and if they actually cared about memory safety. but with a committee that writes nonsense like this, actively denying the problem, i don't see this happening.

> "Memory safety is a very small part of security."
-- C++ Committee submission to DOE laying out the language's memory safety strategy.

https://downloads.regulations.gov/ONCD-2023-0002-0020/attachment_1.pdf

Show threadNoratriebSep 26, 2024
let's hope that Sean Baxter's proposals actually make it and are able to move the needle on making future C++ *actually* more memory safe, instead of just adding more advanced ways to do memory unsafety!
weetsterSep 29, 2024
Show threadNoratrieb
The difference between C and C++ is that C has really basic memory unsafety, whereas C++ has very advanced memory unsafety
Sep 26, 2024 at 6:14amWeb
Show threadNoratriebSep 26, 2024
and https://security.googleblog.com/2024/09/eliminating-memory-safety-vulnerabilities-Android.html nicely shows that you *don't* need to rewrite everything to get large memory safety improvements, just switching to somehow memory safe for future code is enough, and C++ is in the best position to have good interop with existing C++ code
Eliminating Memory Safety Vulnerabilities at the Source

Posted by Jeff Vander Stoep - Android team, and Alex Rebert - Security Foundations Memory safety vulnerabilities remain a pervasive threa...

Google Online Security Blog
Show threadLudovic Archivist LagouardetteSep 26, 2024
@nilstrieb Sean's proposal is very very good. I would also appreciate some memory unsafe APIs to be made safe by default with a flag or pragma directive to allow unsafeness (specifically smart pointer dereference, containers' operator[] and optional/expected coercions, iterators out of scoped ranges), it would go a very long way
Show threadThiago AdamsSep 26, 2024

@nilstrieb have you seen cake static analysis?

http://thradams.com/cake/ownership.html
It prevents in compile time many types of memory errors.

Cake Playground

Show threaddennisaurusSep 27, 2024
@nilstrieb It's funny because it's true! ;)
Show threaddizzyOct 1, 2024
@nilstrieb
stroustrup himself had the same thought in 1986:
"C makes it easy to shoot yourself in the foot; C++ makes it harder, but when you do it blows your whole leg off"
Show threadJoshOct 1, 2024
@nilstrieb @ssweeny Don’t be memorally unsafe with your object oriented languages. That’s how you get hepatitis c++