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As yet another example, consider the Pattern
class that finds extensive use in performing regular expression related tasks. In Java, a given String
literal used for pattern matching is compiled into an instance of the Pattern
type. If the pattern to be matched contains an undesired escape sequence such as a '\n', to avoid it being interpreted by the Java bytecode compiler as an escape sequence, the Pattern
class requires the literal to be preceded by a backslash ('
\\\\n', which now correctly denotes back references instead of a new line).
In general, for a particular escape character of the form '\X', the equivalent Java representation is "
\\\\X". As an aside, this particular condition gains remarkable importance in automatic exploit signature detection systems and filters that rely on patter matching.
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