#safety
5 posts tagged #safety.
C++26 makes an uninitialized read a defined bug
Reading an uninitialized variable has been undefined behavior in C++ since the beginning, and compilers optimize on that assumption. C++26 (P2795) reclassifies it as erroneous behavior: still a bug the compiler diagnoses, but with a defined value and no licence for the optimizer to delete surrounding code. A poisoned-stack demo shows the same source printing garbage under C++23 and a defined 0 under C++26.
Profiles take shape, and the contract C++26 left behind comes back
The other half of the Brno safety story: a profiles framework with real syntax (attributes, not pragmas) plus two concrete profiles from Stroustrup, and P3097 bringing virtual-function contracts back after they were cut from the C++26 MVP. All target C++29.
C++ is writing down all of its undefined behavior
The structural move at WG21 Brno was not a feature -- it was a catalogue. P3596 adds two annexes that enumerate every case of undefined behavior and every ill-formed-no-diagnostic-required corner in the standard, and P3100 turns that list into a case-by-case program to close each one for C++29. There are exactly 80 core-language UB cases, and 70% of them are memory-safety bugs.
WG21 Brno: with C++26 done, the committee turns to undefined behavior
The WG21 Brno meeting (June 8-13, 2026) was the first since C++26 was finalized, and per Herb Sutter's trip report the theme is unmistakable: catalogue and eliminate undefined behavior, push memory-safety profiles toward C++29, and finish the pieces the C++26 MVP deferred. Reflection, the headline of C++26, was not on the marquee -- and that is exactly what shipping looks like.
C++ Safety State of the Union: May 2026
C++ in May 2026 has four conversations running at once: regulators (CISA, EU CRA) demanding memory-safety roadmaps; the committee fighting over how to respond (Hagenberg vote 19 profiles / 9 Safe C++ / 11 both); what actually shipped in C++26 (P2900 contracts, P3471 hardened stdlib, P2996 reflection); and what the industry actually deployed (Chrome MiraclePtr -57% UAF, Google's 0.3% perf-cost data, Apple libc++ safe-buffers). They don't talk to each other in public. This essay wires them. Pre-Brno (8-13 June) reading.