[jmb99]

As an example to illustrate the sibling comments’ explanations:

int *array = NULL

int position = 0x9C

int a = *(array[pos]) //equivalent to *(array + 0x9C) - dereferencing NULL+0x9C, which is just 0x9C

This will segfault (or equivalent) due to reading invalid memory at address 0x9C. Most people would call array[pos] a null pointer dereference casually, even though it’s actually a 0x9C pointer dereference, because there’s very little effective difference between them.

Now, whether this case was actually something like this (dereferencing some element of a null array pointer) or something like type confusion (value 0x9C was supposed to be loaded into an int, or char, or some other non-pointer type) isn’t clear to me. But I haven’t dug into it really, someone smarter than me could probably figure out which it is.

[UncleMeat]

Except we don't see the instructions you'd expect to see if the code was as you describe.

https://x.com/taviso/status/1814762302337654829

[jeffbee]

What we are witnessing quite starkly in this thread is that the majority of HN commenters are the kinds of people exposed to anti-woke/DEI culture warriors on Twitter.