[pjmlp]

> This is quite ignorant of why C/C++ is used.

C and C++ are used due to UNIX becoming widespread, opening the door to those languages in the industry, and killing safer systems programming languages in the process.

The majority of security exploits in C and C++ aren't possible in Modula-2, Ada, Algol, just to cite a few examples.

To quote Hoare on his award's speech, The Emperor's Old Clothes:

"Many years later we asked our customers whether they wished us to provide an option to switch off these checks in the interests of efficiency on production runs. Unanimously, they urged us not to - they already knew how frequently subscript errors occur on production runs where failure to detect them could be disastrous. I note with fear and horror that even in 1980, language designers and users have not learned this lesson. In any respectable branch of engineering, failure to observe such elementary precautions would have long been against the law"

[justwannasing]

Becoming widespread? Outside the desktop, the most commonly used operating system is Unix and its "likes" and dominates the internet and mobile devices.

[pjmlp]

I only cared about C in 1993 and am into computers since 1986.

Only developers with access to expensive UNIX workstations cared about learning C.

Yes, the widespread of UNIX and C as its language is one of the reasons the CVE database gets updated every day.