[shadowgovt]

Just as a general comment on this whole affair:

This would be the third incident I'm familiar with of a file of entirely zeroes breaking something big.

Folks, as much as we wish it weren't true, null comes up all the damn time, and if you don't have tests trying to force-feed null into your system in novel and exciting ways, production will demonstrate them for you.

Never assume 'zero' (for whatever form zero takes in context) can't be an input.

[tempodox]

As long as the botchers get away with impunity, they won't “waste” resources on higher standards.