Alpine Linux Security advisory: OpenSSH-server password authentication bypass

Re:Alpine Linux Security advisory: OpenSSH-server password a... by realharo on Thursday November 05, 2026 @12:28PM (#50381826)

The type of the value in C is `char*`.

That's what led some people to write code where it crashes without checks. Which is still their mistake. But if the type was something that can't be implicitly used like an always-present value, that would have prevented the situation, even with those same people.

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Re:Alpine Linux Security advisory: OpenSSH-server password a... by uecker on Thursday November 05, 2026 @02:47PM (#50383542)

A pointer is a type where a null pointer can't be used as a regular value but leads to a trap when dereferenced.

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Re:Alpine Linux Security advisory: OpenSSH-server password a... by realharo on Friday November 06, 2026 @02:33PM (#50397216)

By "can't be used as a regular value", I meant that it would be a compile-time error.

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Re:Alpine Linux Security advisory: OpenSSH-server password a... by uecker on Friday November 06, 2026 @05:22PM (#50399300)

I see. For safety a run-time check is enough though.

But it turns out one can have a compile-time error forthis in C as well: https://godbolt.org/z/8E9z66cfs

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