[Diggsey]

They're saying don't write such a parser in C. Use something else (memory safe language, parser generator, whatever).

[lazide]

And then do what with it? Throw it away?

If it hands it to a C program, that C program needs to parse (in some form!) those values!

How is a C program expected to ever do anything if it can’t safely handle input?

[tsimionescu]

Untrusted input -> memory-safe parser -> trusted input -> C program.

Probably not that important for `ls`, probably worth it for OpenSSL.

[lazide]

The challenge of course is the links to the ‘memory safe parser’, or how it gets from the untrusted input to it mediated by C, correct?