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Programming Languages: History, Concepts & Design

Team Discussion: What is a Secure Programming Language?

You should read Chapter 2,6,7,8 of the course text (Pillai, 2017) and Cifuentes & Bierman (2019) and then answer the questions below.

  • What factors determine whether a programming language is secure or not?
  • Could Python be classed as a secure language? Justify your answer.
  • Python would be a better language to create operating systems than C. Discuss.

Answers

  1. Quite a number of factors determine whether a programming language is secure or not.
    • Language Design: The design of the language, including features such as memory management, type safety, and error handling mechanisms, can significantly impact its security.
    • Security Features: Built-in security features, such as sandboxing, access control mechanisms, encryption libraries, and secure standard libraries, contribute to a language’s security.
    • Developer Practices: The security of a programming language also depends on how developers utilize the language and follow secure coding practices. Even the most secure language can be misused if developers do not adhere to proper security practices, such as input validation, secure data handling, and vulnerability patching.
  2. Python can be classed as a secure language. The python programming language contains various feature sets that secure it.
    • Memory Management: Python utilizes automatic memory management (garbage collection), reducing the risk of common memory-related vulnerabilities like buffer overflows and memory leaks.
    • Standard Libraries: Python offers a rich set of standard libraries, including security-related modules such as cryptography and SSL/TLS support, which can be leveraged to implement secure solutions.
    • Community Support: Python has a large and active community that actively identifies and addresses security vulnerabilities in the language itself and its associated libraries. Regular security patches and updates help maintain the language’s security.
  3. No, Python would not be a better language to create operating systems than C. This is due to:
    • Python being a high level language it abstracts away many low-level operations, making it less suitable for OS development.
    • Python is an interpreted language, which means it typically has slower execution speed compared to lower-level languages like C.
    • Code Size and Footprint: Operating systems often require tight control over memory usage and have strict size limitations. C allows for more precise memory management and produces smaller executables, making it more suitable for operating system development.

In Summary Operating systems require a low-level language to optimize for performance, size and compatibility. This makes C a preferred language for OS development.

Exploring Python tools and features

Part I 

#include <stdio.h> 
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
char buf[8]; // buffer for eight characters
printf("enter name:"); 
gets(buf); // read from stdio (sensitive function!)
printf("%s\n", buf); // print out data stored in buf
return 0; // 0 as return value
{
  • When an input of over 8 characters has been entered an error occurs. 
    *** stack smashing detected ***: <unknown> terminated
Aborted (core dumped)
  • In C when you assign a buffer to a variable, it can only store x amount of data as defined. In this case we have defined a variable of char type with a buffer of 8, so only 8 characters will be allowed. The error above then occurs when the input overflows the buffer (Temporary storage).

Part II 

buffer=[None]*10
for i in range (0,11):
    buffer[i]=7
print(buffer)
  • The error that occurs when running the above is 
    line 4, in <module>
  buffer[i]=7
IndexError: list assignment index out of range

Running Pylint yields the following results:

Final newline missingPylintC0304:missing-final-newline
Missing module docstring (missing-module-docstring)

Pylint will not tell you how to fix code, especially if it is a logic issue in this case. Pylint is a style guide that helps developers write clean syntax that adheres to set rules