Saint goto fail, of the Doubled Line

Patron of duplicated lines, if statements without braces, and distracted code reviewers.

Life

On 21 February 2014 Apple shipped iOS 7.0.6 with a terse note about SSL verification; the next day Adam Langley explained why. In the Secure Transport code a "goto fail;" line appeared twice in a row: the second always skipped the signature check, and any attacker in the middle could pose as a secure site. One line copied twice, and the padlock on iOS and macOS stayed open.

Prayer

O Saint goto fail, who always jumps where he shouldn't, teach us to add braces even when they seem pointless. Amen.

How to celebrate

Celebrated by updating to iOS 7.0.6 and OS X 10.9.2, turning on unreachable-code warnings, and singing the song written in his honour.

Double the line, halve the security.