Memory bugs in C and C++ code cause security issues so Microsoft is considering alternatives: Rust

guest · Jul 18, 2019

Memory bugs in C and C++ code cause security issues so Microsoft is considering alternatives: Rust
July 18, 2019
https://www.theregister.co.uk/2019/...ysafe_languages_hints_at_move_from_c_to_rust/

The Redmond-based biz has long been a C++ shop when it comes to the programming that matters most to the company – the Windows operating system and the core Office applications, for example.

Gavin Thomas, principal security engineering manager at MSRC, however observed:

The majority of vulnerabilities fixed and with a CVE assigned are caused by developers inadvertently inserting memory corruption bugs into their C and C++ code. As Microsoft increases its code base and uses more Open Source Software in its code, this problem isn't getting better, it's getting worse.
He added "perhaps it is time to scrap unsafe legacy languages and move on to a modern safer system programming language."

The language he has in mind is Mozilla's Rust, designed for system programming with an emphasis on speed, memory and thread safety, and other security features.
If that role goes beyond lecturing the outside world about the benefits of not using C or C++ [...] that has significant implications for the company's culture.
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Microsoft: A proactive approach to more secure code

Alec · Jul 18, 2019

I think this is great news and very smart. I've been looking into Rust recently, and I think it is a very promising language that has done a lot of things right. I've been very impressed. Rust was originally designed and developed by some of the members of the Mozilla team. I think it really would greatly increase memory secure software design practices if the industry heavyweights such as Microsoft strongly embraced Rust.

While Rust is not what I would call a simple language (unique concepts such as ownership and lifetime add some complexity that other languages attempt to hide or sweep under-the-rug); it is rather an easy language to get started with and start learning as it includes a convenient and straightforward build utility named cargo and has a public package repository called crates. It is also quite fast, one of the few languages actually competitive with and sometimes exceeding C in speed.

[Aside: Sorry about the prior duplicate thread. I had searched on the keyword Rust and didn't find this news. I must have overlooked the obvious. I hope you don't mind me re-posting my personal commentary here.]

guest · Oct 8, 2019

Designing a COM library for Rust
October 8, 2019
https://msrc-blog.microsoft.com/2019/10/08/designing-a-com-library-for-rust/

One of the challenges of Rust adoption is interoperability with C++ and existing Microsoft tooling. COM is a standard used widely in Microsoft and supporting it is a necessary step towards interoperability with existing components.
For the uninitiated, COM is a language-agnostic, object-oriented standard for creating binaries. Thanks to COM having an extremely well-defined Application Binary Interface (ABI), binaries that support this standard can interoperate with each other, regardless of the language they are written in.

Using Rust will make it much easier for developers to write secure COM components compared to their C/C++ system languages counterparts.
[...] As you can see, Rust developers have many tools at their disposal to write secure code, as well as to ensure safe usage of their code. Having these tools directly in the compiler instead of having to pick up external complex tooling helps increase productivity and security across the board.
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This project is now open-sourced and available on GitHub!

microsoft/com-rs A Rust Crate for Creating and Consuming COM APIs
A one stop shop for all things related to COM programming in Rust.
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guest · Nov 8, 2019

Using Rust in Windows
November 8, 2019
https://msrc-blog.microsoft.com/2019/11/07/using-rust-in-windows/

This Saturday 9th of November, there will be a keynote from Microsoft engineers Ryan Levick and Sebastian Fernandez at RustFest Barcelona. They will be talking about why Microsoft is exploring Rust adoption, some of the challenges we’ve faced in this process, and the future of Rust adoption in Microsoft.

This blog describes part of the story of Rust adoption at Microsoft. Recently, I’ve been tasked with an experimental rewrite of a low-level system component of the Windows codebase (sorry, we can’t say which one yet). Instead of rewriting the code in C++, I was asked to use Rust, a memory-safe alternative.
[...]
In general, using Rust has been a really great experience. I look forward to seeing more developers at Microsoft working with the language and working with the wider community on making the language an even better fit for some of the things we do here at Microsoft.
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guest · Dec 4, 2019

Microsoft: We're creating a new Rust-like programming language for secure coding
Microsoft's Project Verona to be open-sourced soon
December 2, 2019
https://www.zdnet.com/article/micro...based-programming-language-for-secure-coding/

Microsoft can't just throw away older Windows code, but the company's Project Verona aims to make older low-level components in Windows 10 more secure by integrating Mozilla-developed Rust.
The company has partially explained its security-related motives for experimenting with Rust, but hasn't gone into much detail about the broader reasons for its move.

'Memory safety' is the term for coding frameworks that help protect memory space from being abused by malware. Project Verona at Microsoft is meant to progress the company's work here to close off this attack vector.
Microsoft's Project Verona could turn out to be just an experiment that leads nowhere, but the company has progressed far enough to have detailed some of its ideas through the UK-based non-profit Knowledge Transfer Network.
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guest · May 1, 2020

Microsoft: Our Rust programming language Windows runtime library is now in preview
May 1, 2020
https://www.zdnet.com/article/micro...ge-windows-runtime-library-is-now-in-preview/

Microsoft has announced an early public preview of Rust/WinRT, or Rust for the Windows Runtime (WinRT), and has posted it on GitHub.
The Rust/WinRT project is a "WinRT language projection" or software library for Rust, spearheaded by Kenny Kerr, a principal software engineer on Microsoft's Windows Developer Platform team.

Kerr announced the Rust/WinRT project in November, stating his intent was to "build complete and deep support for WinRT in a way that is natural and familiar for the Rust developer".
Rust/WinRT should make it easier for Rust developers to build Windows desktop apps, store apps, and components like device drivers.
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He also notes some of the security advantages Rust has over C++, which is widely used at Microsoft.

"While [Rust] has its own unique learning curve, it also has the potential to solve some of the most vexing issues that plague C++ projects, and is designed from the ground up with memory safety and safe concurrency as core principles," he notes.
He believes that Rust could solve issues with C++'s relationship to WinRT.
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The Rust/WinRT project adds one more thread to Microsoft's exploration of Rust for its software tools. The company used Rust to rewrite low-level components of Windows originally written in C and C++, and is also looking to Rust's memory-safety features to create a new language for 'safe infrastructure programming' under Project Verona.

And this week Microsoft's Azure engineers revealed why they chose to use Rust over Go to build software tools for the cloud.
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Microsoft: Rust/WinRT Public Preview

We are excited to announce that the Rust/WinRT project finally has a permanent and public home on GitHub:

https://github.com/microsoft/winrt-rs
Rust/WinRT follows in the tradition established by C++/WinRT of building language projections for the Windows Runtime using standard languages and compilers, providing a natural and idiomatic way for Rust developers to call Windows APIs.

This is a very early public preview, but we have decided to work in the open from here on out. So please give it a try and let us know what you think. We would love the feedback as we continue to develop Rust/WinRT and plan to eventually publish on crates.io. We also hope to provide more seamless interop with existing Win32 and COM APIs including support for the com-rs crate, which supports COM APIs today. https://github.com/microsoft/winrt-rs
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guest · May 23, 2020

Microsoft: Here's why we love programming language Rust and kicked off Project Verona
May 22, 2020
https://www.zdnet.com/article/micro...-language-rust-and-kicked-off-project-verona/

Microsoft has explained why it's pursuing 'safe systems programming' through efforts like its experimental Rust-inspired Project Verona language and its exploration of the Rust programming language for Windows code written in C++.
The short answer is that Microsoft is trying to eliminate memory-related bugs in software written in languages like C++, according to Microsoft Rust expert Ryan Levick.

As he explains, the whole software industry is turning out more code than ever and more code means more bugs, which demands a new approach.

"That software by and large is getting safer and better, but people are writing so much more software that getting a little bit safer and better isn't enough," he said.
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Levick says Project Verona is "completely memory safe" but that Microsoft still isn't sure what the project will become.

"We don't want to constrain it down to being production-ready today because that's not the point. So we need to look out to the industry to see what the best alternative to C++ is. And it turns out that language is a language called Rust."
The other project Microsoft turned to Rust for is Krustlet, [...] While Rust has a steep learning curve, the Azure team behind Krustlet preferred Rust over Go because Rust was able to pick up bugs that Go could not.
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Minimalist · May 23, 2020

Chrome: 70% of all security bugs are memory safety issues

Roughly 70% of all serious security bugs in the Chrome codebase are memory management and safety bugs, Google engineers said this week.
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https://www.zdnet.com/article/chrome-70-of-all-security-bugs-are-memory-safety-issues/

guest · Sep 23, 2021

Google Working on Improving Memory Safety in Chrome
September 22, 2021
https://www.securityweek.com/google-working-improving-memory-safety-chrome

Over 70% of the severe bugs identified last year in Chrome were memory safety issues, namely “mistakes with pointers in the C or C++ languages,” and Google decided to tackle the problem before it becomes even more serious.

Of the potential solutions, the Internet search giant decided to focus on two, namely introducing runtime checks to ensure that pointers are correct, and seeking a different memory safe programming language.

“Runtime checks have a performance cost. Checking the correctness of a pointer is an infinitesimal cost in memory and CPU time. But with millions of pointers, it adds up,” Google notes.
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Even so, this was deemed a desirable option, and, despite performance loss, Google is experimenting with it alongside attempts to find a suitable replacement for C++, most likely Rust, which is largely compile-time safe.

“[T]he Rust compiler spots mistakes with pointers before the code even gets to your device, and thus there’s no performance penalty,” Google explains.
For the time being, however, the company is only interested in the manner in which it can make C++ and Rust work together, and has already started non-user-facing Rust experiments.
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Google: An update on Memory Safety in Chrome

Last year, we showed that more than 70% of our severe security bugs are memory safety problems. That is, mistakes with pointers in the C or C++ languages which cause memory to be misinterpreted.

The leading contender is Rust, invented by our friends at Mozilla. This is (largely) compile-time safe; that is, the Rust compiler spots mistakes with pointers before the code even gets to your device, and thus there’s no performance penalty. Yet there are open questions about whether we can make C++ and Rust work well enough together.
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EASTER · Sep 23, 2021

The leading contender is Rust, invented by our friends at Mozilla. This is (largely) compile-time safe; that is, the Rust compiler spots mistakes with pointers before the code even gets to your device, and thus there’s no performance penalty. Yet there are open questions about whether we can make C++ and Rust work well enough together.
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Good effort on the part of Mozilla (and others) to FINALLY make it around to improving computer coding machine language that may actually be of help and not hindrance OR sacrificing safety for sake of pocket profits.

guest · Jul 28, 2022

The Rust programming language just got a big boost from Meta
Rust gains a spot on Meta's narrow bench for officially supported server-side programming languages.
July 28, 2022

Facebook parent Meta now encourages its engineers to use C++ and Rust programming languages for coding high-performance backend services.

Rust, initially developed within Mozilla, is joining Meta as an officially endorsed server-side language. Adding Rust as a supported language was a "very careful and deliberate decision" to help engineers pick the best language for their projects, according to Meta.

"Meta is committed to provide long-term support for programming languages used by our developer, and this move signals Meta's long-term commitment and support for the Rust language ecosystem," it said.
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Its status as a supported language is the next step in Facebook's adoption of Rust. It joined the Rust Foundation in April 2021 as a platinum member with AWS, Google, Huawei, Microsoft and Mozilla.

Rust is now recommended for writing command line interface (CLI) tools and "performance-sensitive back-end services".

"There's a rapidly increasing Rust footprint in our products and services, and we're committing to Rust long-term and welcome early adopters," says Eric Garcia, a Meta software engineering manager.
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Meta: Programming languages endorsed for server-side use at Meta

– Supporting a programming language at Meta is a very careful and deliberate decision.
– We’re sharing our internal programming language guidance that helps our engineers and developers choose the best language for their projects.
– Rust is the latest addition to Meta’s list of supported server-side languages.
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guest · Jan 12, 2023

Google To Allow Rust Code In The Chromium Browser
by Michael Larabel @michaellarabel - January 12, 2023

Google announced today that moving forward they will be allowing Rust code into the Chromium code-base, the open-source project that ultimately served as the basis for their Chrome web browser.
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Google is working to introduce a production Rust toolchain into their build system for Chromium and will be allowing Rust libraries for use within Chrome/Chromium. The timeframe for getting this all together is expected within the next year following a slow ramp.

Google is backing Rust for Chromium to allow for simpler and safer code than "complex C++" overall, particularly around avoiding memory safety bugs. In turn using Rust should help speed-up development and improve overall security of the Chrome web browser.
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Learn more about this planned usage of Rust code within Chrome/Chromium via the Google Security Blog.
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Google: Supporting the Use of Rust in the Chromium Project

by Dana Jansens - January 12, 2023
We are pleased to announce that moving forward, the Chromium project is going to support the use of third-party Rust libraries from C++ in Chromium. To do so, we are now actively pursuing adding a production Rust toolchain to our build system. This will enable us to include Rust code in the Chrome binary within the next year. We’re starting slow and setting clear expectations on what libraries we will consider once we’re ready.

In this blog post, we will discuss how we arrived at the decision to support third-party Rust libraries at this time, and not broader usage of Rust in Chromium.
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