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Null pointer access caused by bad data is entirely conceivable... esp when you overwrite parts of kernel memory with nulls.

I see. That doesn't make it better though, and OK let's forget about other languages.

I mean that the least you can do before pointer dereference is just check for several bad sentinel values, NULL being one of them.

Seems like a rather amateur mistake to me.

From that point of view, there are several million amateurs, some of them quite highly paid, out there writing terrible code.

Well, that statement is 100% true.

I've been an idiot as well in the past. Happily some of us actually learn though!