Memory safety is a concern in software development that aims to avoid software bugs that cause security vulnerabilities dealing with random-access memory (RAM) access, such as buffer overflows and dangling pointers.
Computer languages such as C and C++ that support arbitrary pointer arithmetic, casting, and deallocation are typically not memory safe. There are several different approaches to find errors in such languages: see the Detection section below.
The Cyclone language uses a hybrid approach, including "fat pointers" (pointers that carry their metadata directly) and regions to give programmers some low-level control while still ensuring memory safety.
Most high-level programming languages avoid the problem by disallowing pointer arithmetic and casting entirely, and by enforcing tracing garbage collection as the sole memory management scheme.
A language could support even more uses of pointer arithmetic, casting, and deallocation without sacrificing memory safety by using automated theorem proving as a form of static code analysis. ESC/Java and D demonstrate two ways that programmers can declare their invariants in ways that can be understood by a theorem prover.
Read more about Memory Safety: Types of Memory Errors, Detection
Famous quotes containing the words memory and/or safety:
“And year by year our memory fades
From all the circle of the hills.”
—Alfred Tennyson (1809–1892)
“The Declaration [of Independence] was not a protest against government, but against the excess of government. It prescribed the proper role of government, to secure the rights of individuals and to effect their safety and happiness. In modern society, no individual can do this alone. So government is not a necessary evil but a necessary good.”
—Gerald R. Ford (b. 1913)