Everything in C is undefined behavior
2026-05-19 , Categories: programming, security
If he had been a programmer, Cardinal Richelieu would have said “Give me six lines written by the hand of the most expert C programmer in the world, and I will find enough in them to trigger undefined behavior”.
Nobody can write correct C, or C++. And I say that as someone who’s written C and C++ on an almost daily basis for about 30 years. I listen to C++ podcasts. I watch C++ conference talks. I enjoy reading and writing C++.
C++ has served us well, but it’s 2026, and the environment of 1985 (C++) or 1972 (C) is not the environment of today.
I’m definitely not the first to say this. I remember reading a post by someone prominent about a decade ago saying that a good case can be made that use of C++ is a SOX violation. And while I was not onboard with the rest of their rant (nor their confusion about “its” vs “it’s”), I never disagreed about that point.
With time I found it to be more and more true. WAY more things are undefined behavior (UB) than you’d expect.