I think you're missing arh68's point. If it's supposed to find the magic number, and by definition the comment is allowed to contain the magic number, then this

I think you're missing arh68's point. If it's supposed to find the magic number, and by definition the comment is allowed to contain the magic number, then this section of the code should (correctly) diagnose that this is not the magic number, but (incorrect in the current implementation) then continue to search backward for the REAL magic number.