Memory Safety for Skeptics
12 days ago
- #rust
- #memory-safety
- #software-security
- Memory safety prevents software vulnerabilities like buffer overflows and use-after-free errors.
- Rust popularized memory safety in systems programming, offering compile-time guarantees.
- Adopting Rust has led to a 70% reduction in memory-safety vulnerabilities in production systems.
- Rewriting legacy code in Rust is costly and risky, but incremental approaches can be effective.
- Memory safety can be achieved through new code, wrapping unsafe code, or using safe languages.
- Government agencies recommend roadmaps for transitioning to memory-safe languages.
- Memory-safety violations can lead to severe security issues like remote code execution.
- Memory-safe-by-default languages include Rust, Java, Go, and Python, while C and C++ are not.
- Regulation of memory safety is unlikely soon, but industry adoption is growing.
- Memory safety is a cost-effective way to improve software security, similar to seatbelt laws.