> > From: Tim Newsham [mailto:newsham@xxxxxxxx] > > > But lets assume that a good programmer is writing software and > > it comes to his attention that there is a buffer overflow, or > > that user input is not being filtered, or that user input is being > > passed to a printf type function. What happens next? Well, it > > depends on how many bugs there are, how much other work needs > > to be done, and very importantly, what the perceived impact of > > that bug is. You cannot imagine how many times a bug is pointed > > out and the author of the software says "ok, that bug can only > > happen if the user does something stupid, and it is not exploitable. > > Lets defer that one." > > This suggests that it's reasonable for a program to segfault because the > user made a mistake, instead of having some non-fatal form of error > handling. I don't think that should be acceptable at all, though I agree > it's very common. If I had a dollar for every time I've lost work because a > segfault or GPF happened before I saved my document... A "defer" means "we'll fix it, but we have more important things to do first." I wouldn't say its an acceptance that its "reasonable" behavior. Tim N.
