Bjarne Stroustrup, a C++ creator, published objections to the conclusions made in the NSA report, which recommended organizations to move away from programming languages like C and C++ that place memory management on developers, in favor of languages like C#, Go, Java, Ruby, Rust, and Swift that provide automatic memory management or perform checks for safe memory usage during compilation.
According to Stroustrup, the safe languages mentioned in the NSA report do not actually outperform C++ in important applications from his perspective. In particular, the C++ Core Guidelines developed in recent years cover safe programming methods and prescribe the use of tools that ensure safe operation with types and resources. Meanwhile, developers who do not require such strict safety guarantees are allowed to continue using older development methods.
Stroustrup believes that a good static analyzer, compliant with the C++ Core Guidelines, can provide the necessary safety guarantees for C++ code while requiring significantly less expense than a transition to new safe programming languages. For example, most recommendations from the Core Guidelines are already implemented in the static analyzer and memory safety profile included in Microsoft Visual Studio. Some recommendations are also taken into account in the Clang tidy static analyzer.
The report's focus on memory issues has also been criticized for overlooking many other problems with programming languages that affect safety and reliability. Stroustrup views safety as a broader concept, the various facets of which can be achieved through a combination of coding style, libraries, and static analyzers. To manage the inclusion of rules that ensure safe operation with types and resources, it is recommended to use annotations in code and compiler options.
Olyan alkalmazásokban, ahol a teljesítmény fontosabb a biztonságnál, ez a megközelítés lehetővé teszi, hogy a biztonsági eszközöket csak ott alkalmazzák, ahol szükséges. A biztonságnövelő eszközök részlegesen is alkalmazhatók, például először csak a tartományellenőrzési és inicializálási szabályokra lehet korlátozódni, majd fokozatosan lehet a kódot szigorúbb követelményeknek megfelelően adaptálni.
Forrás: opennet.ru
