I don't think it assumes it's 8 bits, but rather it assumes the values won't be outside the range of an 8 bit number, which should be fine, given that it's an o

I don't think it assumes it's 8 bits, but rather it assumes the values won't be outside the range of an 8 bit number, which should be fine, given that it's an octet-oriented protocol? Using char pointers presumably is to get correct aliasing analysis?