How many "mature C programs" try to recover in a usable way when malloc() returns NULL? That's a crash - a well-behaved one (no UB involved) hence not one that would be sought by most attackers other than a mere denial of service - but still a crash.

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okanat 3 days ago | parent | next [-]

On 64-bit systems (esp Linux ones) malloc almost never returns NULL but keeps overallocating (aka overcommiting). You don't get out of memory errors / kills until you access it.

	▲	sibellavia 3 days ago \| parent [-]
		Exactly. Also, it is extremely rare.

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1718627440 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

> when malloc() returns NULL? That's a crash - a well-behaved one (no UB involved)

Wrong, dereferencing a NULL pointer is UB.

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sph 2 days ago | parent [-]

Which on UNIXes is a crash because the zero page is unmapped so you get a SIGSEGV

	▲	1718627440 a day ago \| parent [-]
		Unless the compiler optimized the access away, or replaced it with a different address.