Assertions are a valuable diagnostic tool for finding and eliminating software defects that may result in vulnerabilities. (See MSC11-C. Incorporate diagnostic tests using assertions.) The runtime assert() macro has some limitations, however, in that it incurs a runtime overhead and because it calls abort(). Consequently, the runtime assert() macro is useful only for identifying incorrect assumptions and not for runtime error checking. As a result, runtime assertions are generally unsuitable for server programs or embedded systems.
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Static assertion is a valuable diagnostic tool for finding and eliminating software defects that may result in vulnerabilities at compile time. The absence of static assertions, however, does not mean that code is incorrect.
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