Compile-Time Memory Safety in C#

C, 1972#

• no bounds checks
• no lifetime tracking
• no runtime, on purpose

Fast, portable, and exactly as safe as the programmer writing it

The bill comes due#

• buffer overflow
• use-after-free
• double-free
• uninitialised read

Five bug classes, forever, in every C codebase that has ever shipped

This course is not “C is bad”#

It’s: what has anyone actually built to keep C’s speed and reach while closing this gap — and what did each attempt have to give up to do it?

The shape of the semester#

• weeks 2–3: what compile-time checking can prove at all, and Rust as the target everyone else is measured against
• weeks 4–10: seven real retrofits, from Cyclone to academic prototypes
• week 11: one CVE, every tool, side by side
• week 12: what’s actually shipping today

Before next week#

Read up on Heartbleed (CVE-2014-0160) and Baron Samedit (CVE-2021-3156). Don’t chase the exploit chain — just find the two or three lines doing the damage.