It seems that while using output buffering, an included file which calls die() before the output buffer is closed is flushed rather than cleaned. That is, ob_end_flush() is called by default.

<?php
// a.php (this file should never display anything)
ob_start();
include('b.php');
ob_end_clean();
?>

<?php
// b.php
print "b";
die();
?>

This ends up printing "b" rather than nothing as ob_end_flush() is called instead of ob_end_clean(). That is, die() flushes the buffer rather than cleans it. This took me a while to determine what was causing the flush, so I thought I'd share.