They also crop up all the time in embedded code, because flags are how lots of hardware works. But, yes, it's usually a different smell in that context because

They also crop up all the time in embedded code, because flags are how lots of hardware works. But, yes, it's usually a different smell in that context because you just know someone is hot-gluing the exact bitmask for a thing into some hardware-agnostic controller code without writing a proper interface that translates from an internal representation (say, an enum) to actual physical bits.