Secure C Compiler

Overview

The Secure C Compiler project aims to create a robust, secure C compiler that ensures the generated C code is safe, secure, and free from common vulnerabilities. Our goal is to push secure C code to production by integrating secure coding practices throughout the compilation process.

Optimization is not the primary focus, safety and security are.

Project Structure

secure-c-compiler/
├── cmd/
│   └── main/
│       └── main.go
├── lexer/
│   ├── lexer.go
│   └── token.go
├── parser/
│   ├── parser.go
│   └── ast.go
├── semantic/
│   └── analyzer.go
├── optimizer/
│   └── optimizer.go
├── codegen/
│   └── codegen.go
├── util/
│   └── error.go
├── tests/
│   ├── lexer_test.go
│   ├── parser_test.go
│   ├── semantic_test.go
│   ├── optimizer_test.go
│   └── codegen_test.go
├── go.mod
└── go.sum

Goals

Ensure Secure Code Generation: Generate C code that adheres to secure coding standards, mitigating risks such as buffer overflows, integer overflows, format string vulnerabilities, and memory leaks.
Provide Comprehensive Analysis: Perform thorough lexical, syntactic, semantic, and static analysis to identify and resolve potential security issues in the source code.
Optimize for Security and Performance: Implement optimization techniques that enhance both the security and performance of the generated code.
Facilitate Secure Development Practices: Provide tools and warnings to help developers write secure C code, replacing unsafe constructs with secure alternatives.

Key Features

Lexical Analysis: Tokenize source code while identifying and flagging unsafe patterns.
Parsing: Construct an Abstract Syntax Tree (AST) with security checks for proper syntax and structure.
Semantic Analysis: Analyze the AST for semantic correctness, ensuring type safety and proper use of identifiers.
Optimization: Optimize the AST and intermediate representations for secure and efficient code generation.
Code Generation: Generate machine code with built-in security features, adhering to best practices in secure coding.

How We Aim to Achieve Our Goals

Secure Coding Practices:
- Utilize principles from the SEI CERT division and "Secure Coding in C and C++" by Robert Seacord (for example) to guide our implementation.
- Integrate input validation, safe memory management, and error handling into all stages of the compiler.
Modular Design:
- Structure the compiler into clear, modular components (lexer, parser, semantic analyzer, optimizer, code generator) to facilitate development, testing, and maintenance.
Comprehensive Testing:
- Implement unit tests for each component to ensure correctness and security.
- Conduct integration tests to verify the seamless operation of all components.
- Use fuzz testing and static analysis tools to identify and fix vulnerabilities.
Continuous Improvement:
- Regularly review and update the compiler to incorporate new secure coding practices and address emerging security threats.
- Encourage community contributions to enhance the compiler's features and security.

Getting Started

Prerequisites

Go 1.22 or later

Installation

Clone the repository:

git clone https://github.com/yourusername/secure-c-compiler.git

Navigate to the project directory:
```
cd secure-c-compiler
```
Build the project:
```
go build ./cmd/main
```

Usage

To compile a C source file:

./main <source-file.c>

Example

For a sample main.c file:

int main() {
    return 0;
}

Run the compiler:

./main main.c

Contributing

We welcome contributions to enhance the Secure C Compiler. Please fork the repository and submit a pull request with your changes. Ensure your code adheres to the project's coding standards and passes all tests.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License. See the license file for details.

Contact

For questions, suggestions, or issues, please open an issue on GitHub.

# Packages

# README