Why C Has Always Broken Static Analysis | Endor Labs

Summary

An Endor Labs article explains why static analysis (SAST) struggles most with C and C++. It gives four reasons: the preprocessor and build-dependent code paths, pointer analysis tradeoffs, memory-safety bugs that pattern rules cannot model, and the lack of frameworks to model. The article notes that memory-safety bugs made up 65 to 70 percent of high and critical vulnerabilities across Chrome, Android, iOS, Windows, and the Linux kernel, and that AI agents are now writing C faster than review can keep up.