Robust initialization of a program is important from a security standpoint, because the more parts of the program’s environment that can be validated (e.g., input, privileges, system parameters) before any critical code runs, the better you can minimize the risks of many types of exploits. In addition, setting a variety of operating parameters to a known state will help thwart attackers who run a program in a hostile environment, hoping to exploit some assumption in the program regarding an external resource that the program accesses (either directly or indirectly). This chapter outlines some of these potential problems, and suggests solutions that work towards reducing the associated risks.
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