[ale] Any language (wuz: Assembly Language?)

[Michael B. Trausch]

On 10/27/2013 10:00 AM, Pete Hardie wrote:
> Out of curiosity, what sort of things are you referring to in the 
> Python stdlib?

It's not "what sort" but "how much".

It's extremely time-consuming and thus therefore very improbable to be 
able to audit the entire Python stdlib, plus the entire python VM, plus 
the entire interpreter, plus the generator, and be able to say "Yes, 
this 12-line Python program is proved secure."

Those twelve lines on their own might be secure, /assuming that all 
invariants are held that the programmer assumes/.  Of course, that 
depends on far more than the 12 lines of code!  That audit then has a 
domino effect.

However, if you are working in C, you don't even really need to worry 
about the compiler itself, just the compiler's output.  If you can 
easily map a line of C to one or more assembler statements (and you can 
do that quite easily), then you can prove the program's security far 
more easily.  After all, then you KNOW where the chains of logic 
go---they're static, not dynamic.

     --- Mike

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