HN Explorer

6 comments

[ 2.6 ms ] story [ 19.4 ms ] thread
jamespwilliams
Can you spot the intentional bug in this commit?
JSDevOps
It was checking if the C compiled to detect the landlock feature, and there was a single character in the middle of the code that made it always fail to compile and therefore silently leave the feature disabled.
michelangelo
This is just spectacular. Evil, of course, but spectacular nevertheless.

  +        #include <sys/prctl.h>
  +. <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<< THIS IS IT
  +        void my_sandbox(void)
  +        {
  +
fargle
why bother with a . instead of a &nbsp or some other unicode hackdodgery?
olliej
A few reasons have been previously discussed: plenty of diff viewers highlight non-standard characters being a big one, the other bit being if someone does see this error it seems entirely plausible as a mistake.

Choosing something atypical in a way that is clearly trying to be invisible rather than being an accident will draw a lot more attention than “oops I must have typo’d it”