The Compiler Nobody Satisfactorily Tested - Supply-Chain Gaps in EV Charging Firmware

The talk opens with the Pwn2Own Automotive 2026 results, where EV chargers drew heavy attention and several winning exploits were plain memory-safety bugs such as out-of-bounds writes. The speaker points out that public disclosures never record which compiler built the affected firmware, and that the bill of materials format in a reference charger design has no field for a toolchain.

The middle of the talk uses a dead-store example to show that a key wiped with memset in correct C can disappear from the emitted binary, so source review alone misses the problem. The speaker then maps ISO 26262 qualified Rust compilers against chips and operating systems, showing many combinations with no qualified option. ISO 21434 manages tools but does not require compiler qualification, and software-defined vehicles and machine-written code raise the stakes.

For chargers and roadside units, which fall under fewer standards than cars, the speaker proposes a four-step lens: develop in a memory-safe language, compile with a qualified compiler, verify independently for the exact configuration, and review the binary. The speaker has not yet built the proposed demonstration and offers the blueprint for others to attempt.