Writing Memory Safe JIT Compilers
10 hours ago
- #JIT Compilers
- #Memory Safety
- #GraalVM
- V8 Sandbox mitigates browser exploits caused by JIT compiler bugs.
- Most Chrome exploits start with V8 memory safety bugs.
- V8 vulnerabilities are often subtle logic issues, not classic memory corruption bugs.
- Rewriting V8 in a memory-safe language like Rust doesn't solve these issues.
- GraalJS, a JavaScript engine written in Java, avoids these bugs by design.
- Truffle framework allows writing interpreters in Java, ensuring memory safety.
- Partial evaluation (Futamura projection) transforms interpreter code into JIT-compiled methods.
- Compilation-final variables in Truffle enable constant folding during JIT compilation.
- Truffle automatically handles deoptimization and recompilation for performance and safety.
- GraalJS eliminates memory safety bugs by defining language semantics through a memory-safe interpreter.