Why doesn't the OS crash if I dereference a null pointer?

Question

Dereferencing a null pointer results in undefined behavior. In practice it usually means that my program will crash. But why doesn\'t the OS crash? Because if my progra

Answer 1

Because if my program dereferences a null pointer, and my program is run by the OS, then, according to the rules of logical transitivity, this means the OS tried to dereference a null pointer. Why doesn't the OS enter a state of "undefined behavior"?

This is wrong. There's something called memory protection and thats WHY your program is terminated. Is the OS that is protecting itself (in the terms of memory use).