24-11-2012, 11:05 AM
Safe systems-level programming
Abstract
C is still the language of choice for programming operating systems and other code that needs to be efficient and manage system resources. However, C code is often afflicted with buffer overflows and other memory corruption vulnerabilities. Some experimental programming languages (such as Vault and Cyclone) aim to give the same power as C while being much safer (eliminating buffer overflows, for instance). A PhD thesis could build on the lessons learnt from those languages to defend against more classes of attacks.