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ZDNET's key takeaways
Rust will save Linux from C's inherent security weaknesses.
Linux, faced with a flood of AI-discovered security problems, could use the help.
Going forward, more and more Linux code will be written in Rust.
At the Rust Week conference, the world's biggest Rust language conference, in Utrecht, Netherlands, Linux stable kernel maintainer Greg Kroah-Hartman opened by saying: "I'm here to talk about untrusted data and Linux, and how Rust is going to save us." After "a long month or two on the kernel security list," he pushed that point even further: "I'm going to make even a bolder statement and say, 'You are going to save Linux.' Sorry, it's all on you."
Saving? Linux needs saving?
What he was talking about was the sudden flood of serious Linux security holes being discovered, such as Dirty Frag, Copy Fail, and Fragnesia, that have come to light thanks to the latest AI bug-detection programs.
As a result, Kroah-Hartman, who has "seen every single kernel security bug ever" since 2005, said the kernel team is now issuing "13 CVEs [Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures] a day, or something, something crazy." He thinks Rust is one of the few realistic ways to slash the class of bugs that come from C's traditional error-handling and resource-management pitfalls.
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