Abstract Machine - GoKawiil

LWN discusses efforts to curb undefined behavior in C standard

An LWN.net article recounts a talk explaining why undefined behavior exists in C and how the language's standard, dating back to C89, was built around an abstract machine model to accommodate diverse historical hardware. The speaker outlined C's enduring strengths—portability, fast compilation, predictable binaries—while detailing how the standard only guarantees 'observable' behavior, leaving much else open to compiler implementers.

lwn.net · 2026-10-09

Researcher Chris Domas warns compiler optimizations can silently erase security code

At Black Hat USA, security researcher Chris Domas told David Bombal that compilers can legally strip out security-critical operations like memory-clearing code, even when source code follows best practices. He demonstrated how subtle factors such as data size, register pressure and structure layout can determine whether an optimized binary is safe or exploitable, with some byte sizes producing secure code and nearby sizes producing vulnerable output.

davidbombal.com · 2026-09-12