Can a Programming Language Reduce Vulnerabilities?
Rust offers a safer programming language, but adoption is still a problem despite recent signs of increasing popularity.
When Microsoft wanted to rewrite a security-critical network processing agent to eliminate memory-safety vulnerabilities causing recurring headaches for the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC), the company tasked an intern and told him to rewrite the code in Rust.
Rust, a programming language that has claimed the title of most loved among developers for five years in a row, could change the vulnerability landscape by practically eliminating certain types of memory-safety errors. The language s claim to fame is that it provides the speed and control of C and C++, while delivering security and safety guarantees of other languages, such as Go and Python. Nearly 70% of the vulnerabilities that the MSRC processes are classified as memory-safety issues, so eliminating the class of vulnerabilities is critical