How The GNU C Compiler Became The Clippy Of Cryptography
The Register, Monday, February 9th, 2026
The creators of security software have encountered an unlikely foe in their attempts to protect us: modern compilers. Today's compilers boil down code into its most efficient form, but in doing so they can undo safety precautions.
"Modern software compilers are breaking our code," said Rene Meusel, sharing his concerns in a FOSDEM talk on February 1.
Meusel manages the Botan cryptography library and is also a senior software engineer at Rohde & Schwarz Cybersecurity.
As the maintainer of Botan, Meusel is cognizant of all the different ways encryption can be foiled. It's not enough to get the math right. Your software also needs to encrypt and decrypt safely.
Writing code to execute this task can be trickier than some might imagine. And the compilers aren't helping.