Rust for Security Engineers

As a security engineer often leveraging Python 🐍 and shell scripts 🐚 for automation, I embarked on a journey to learn Rust 🦀. My primary goal was to delve deeper into the language, moving beyond the prevailing "secure programming language" narrative to truly understand its fundamentals.

While high-level scripting environments like Python offer a developer-friendly syntax and an abstraction layer that can make complex tasks seem trivial, accelerating development, this very abstraction often disconnects us from the systems level. Furthermore, the notorious "dependency hell" frequently encountered when deploying scripts across diverse systems presents a considerable hurdle for code distribution and production readiness.

Years after my university days, I also felt a renewed desire to explore a systems-level language. This pursuit aimed at fostering a more direct interaction with the operating system, gaining a deeper understanding of "under the hood" mechanisms, an invaluable skill for disciplines such as reverse engineering and digital forensics. My objective was to learn a modern systems-level language prioritizing safe systems programming. This, I hoped, would enhance my capabilities as a code reviewer and elevate my insights on reverse engineering. The inherent memory safety guarantees of such a language are, in my view, a "killer feature" for any security engineer, as they provide a profoundly deeper understanding of the consequences of memory corruption vulnerabilities.

To kickstart this learning, I read The Rust Programming Language book 📕 cover to cover and worked through various exercises, primarily from Rustlings—more on this later. As of this writing, I've concluded my initial research phase and am actively engaged in a personal project, which I consider my ultimate test of Rust proficiency 🚧.

In this post, I aim to share my impressions of Rust from a security engineer's perspective, offering insights for fellow professionals considering a similar learning trajectory.

Core Concepts and Security

Before diving deep into Rust, I revisited foundational operating systems concepts, particularly focusing on memory management. When a program executes, the operating system loads it into memory, assigning virtual addresses that are subsequently mapped to physical addresses. Each process operates within its own virtual address space, believing it has exclusive access to memory. The OS enforces this isolation, preventing processes from interfering with each other's memory. Within a process's memory space, key sections for programmers are the stack and the heap.

The stack provides fast access memory due to its predictable structure, but it requires that the size of stored values be known at compile time. In contrast, the heap allows for dynamic memory allocation during runtime and supports flexible data structures, though with generally slower access. Many common security vulnerabilities 🐛, such as buffer overflows, memory leaks, dangling pointers, and double frees, arise from improper management of heap memory, especially in languages without built-in memory safety. While some issues like buffer overflows can affect both stack and heap, problems like double frees and leaks are specific to heap-allocated data.

To proactively address these challenges, Rust's creators introduced the concept of ownership 🏠, arguably one of Rust's most significant contributions to security. Ownership establishes a rigorous set of guardrails and rules that programmers must adhere to. These rules effectively serve as a masterclass in proper memory management, designed to prevent corruptions. Indeed, the process of learning Rust often feels akin to gaining X-ray vision into the intricacies of memory management.

Rust's ownership model is built on key concepts like borrowing, references, and lifetimes, each enabling safe and efficient memory use. Borrowing lets code access data without taking ownership. References are pointer-like structures that follow borrowing rules to ensure safety. Lifetimes track how long references are valid, preventing dangling pointers at compile time.

Building upon this, a programmer must possess a clear understanding of where data resides in memory, a skill invaluable for reverse engineering and exploit development, as this directly dictates how the data can be utilized. For instance, scalar types (like integers, floats, and booleans) are typically stored on the stack because their sizes are known at compile time. They implement the Copy trait, allowing them to be used more freely without explicit ownership transfers. Conversely, compound types (like String, Vec, and Box) manage data on the heap. While the String, Vec, or Box itself (which contains pointers/lengths/capacities) might reside on the stack, the actual data they manage is allocated on the heap. These types generally do not implement Copy and are subject to Rust's strict borrowing rules, necessitating careful adherence to prevent issues.

The next code listing shows some examples on it.

1
fn main() {
2
    // `s1` is on the stack. Simple, fast.
3
    let s1 = 5;
4

5
    // `s2` is a pointer on the stack pointing to data on the heap.
6
    // This allocation is explicit and understood.
7
    let s2 = Box::new(10);
8

9
    // Moving `s2` to `s3` invalidates `s2`. The compiler enforces this.
10
    // This is a lesson in pointer semantics and memory safety.
11
    let s3 = s2;
12
    // println!("{}", s2); // ERROR! Value borrowed after move.
13
} // The heap memory for Box<i32> is freed here. Rust teaches you this.

This clarity regarding data storage locations enables a programmer to examine any enum or struct definition and confidently infer the layout and storage characteristics of its components, particularly how the initial, stack-resident part of the data is structured.

Rust is a strongly typed language, and it rigorously enforces these types throughout the codebase. While this contributes significantly to code predictability, it can sometimes be a source of initial confusion for newcomers, especially when navigating generics and error handling mechanisms; topics we'll explore further.

For performance-conscious engineers, it's vital to recognize that Rust incorporates high-level language features such as generics, iterators, and traits. Crucially, these abstractions compile down to highly efficient assembly code, introducing virtually no runtime overhead, a concept known as zero-cost abstractions. This design also makes Rust exceptionally amenable to functional programming paradigms, which is a significant advantage in my opinion. The following snippet of code shows some of these features in action.

1
// An enum to define the possible types of log events.
2
// This enforces strong typing for log categories.
3
enum LogType {
4
    Login,
5
    FailedLogin,
6
    Alert,
7
}
8

9
// A generic struct to represent a log entry.
10
// It uses a generic type `T` for the `payload`, allowing it to hold
11
// different data types like a raw byte stream, a string, or a structured
12
// object.
13
struct LogEntry<T> {
14
    log_type: LogType,
15
    payload: T,
16
}
17

18
// A simple `impl` block for our generic `LogEntry`.
19
// The compiler guarantees this works for any type `T`.
20
impl<T> LogEntry<T> {
21
    // This method simply consumes the `LogEntry` and returns its payload.
22
    fn into_payload(self) -> T {
23
        self.payload
24
    }
25
}
26

27
// This is a zero-cost abstraction. We're providing a specialized `impl`
28
// block that is only available when the `payload` type is a `String`.
29
// This allows us to add specific, type-dependent functionality.
30
impl LogEntry<String> {
31
    // This method is only available for log entries with a String payload.
32
    fn is_potential_alert(&self) -> bool {
33
        self.payload.contains("SQL") || self.payload.contains("XSS")
34
    }
35
}

Rust also enforces immutability by default for variables. This means that to alter a variable's value after its initial assignment, it must be explicitly marked with the mut keyword. This design choice dramatically enhances code explicitness and predictability.

Rust famously avoids "Null" values, a design decision aimed at preventing the "billion-dollar mistake" often associated with null pointers. To gracefully handle the absence of a value, the Option<T> enum type was introduced, offering a remarkably clean and type-safe solution.

The next snippet of code shows how immutability and Option<T> work in practice.

1
// This variable is immutable by default. Its value can't be changed.
2
let threat_level = "High";
3

4
// The following line would result in a compile-time error:
5
// threat_level = "Low";
6

7
// To allow the value to change, we use the `mut` keyword.
8
let mut scan_status = "Scanning...";
9
println!("Current status: {}", scan_status);
10
scan_status = "Scan Complete.";
11
println!("Final status: {}", scan_status);
12

13
// `Option<T>` is used for values that may or may not exist,
14
// avoiding the "billion-dollar mistake" of null pointers.
15
// `Some(T)` holds a value, `None` represents its absence.
16
let vulnerability_found: Option<&str> = Some("CVE-2023-12345");
17

18
// The `match` statement forces us to handle both possibilities,
19
// ensuring we never try to access a non-existent value.
20
match vulnerability_found {
21
    Some(cve) => println!("Alert: Vulnerability {} found.", cve),
22
    None => println!("No vulnerabilities detected."),
23
}

Ergonomics

Functions in Rust implicitly return the final expression in their body, eliminating the need for an explicit return keyword in many cases. This design choice contributes to cleaner and more concise code.

The concept of shadowing allows us to re-declare a variable with the same name within the same scope, effectively "shadowing" the previous one. This can often simplify code by avoiding the need for distinct names like spaces_str and spaces_num, allowing us to reuse a simpler name such as spaces when its type or value changes.

The _ (underscore) pattern serves multiple ergonomic purposes. It can be used to explicitly mark a variable as intentionally unused, silencing compiler warnings, and also acts as a wildcard or "catch-all" in match expressions or destructuring, akin to an "else" variant. Refer to the next listing for some examples.

1
fn is_valid_scan(port: u16) -> bool {
2
    port < 1024  // same as: return port < 1024;
3
}
4

5
let connection = "tcp";
6
let connection = connection.len(); // `connection` is now an integer
7

8
let log_entry = ("INFO", "10.0.0.5", "Login successful");
9
let (_, _, message) = log_entry; // ignoring the log level and IP address

The presence of various string-like types (e.g., string literals like "foo", character literals like 'f', String, &str) can initially feel somewhat confusing. This diversity is fundamentally tied to their memory allocation (stack vs. heap) and the specific operations they support, representing a learning curve for newcomers.

// `&str` is a "string slice". It's a reference to a sequence of characters
// that lives somewhere else (in this case, in the program's binary).
// It's immutable and fast, living on the stack.
let security_protocol: &str = "TLS";

// `String` is a growable, owned string on the heap.
// We use it when we need to modify or own string data.
let mut log_message = String::from("Successful login attempt from ");
log_message.push_str("10.0.0.5");
// `log_message` data is on the heap, but its pointer and length are on
// the stack.

// A `char` is a single Unicode character, 4 bytes on the stack.
// It's a simple, distinct type from string-like types.
let alert_char = '!';

// We can convert between types. Here, we borrow a slice from a `String`.
let log_slice: &str = &log_message;

enums and structs are powerful features that empower programmers to tailor code precisely to their use cases. By allowing the creation of custom compound data types, they enhance code readability while adhering to Rust's "zero-cost abstraction" principle.

Generics offer an excellent mechanism for providing dynamic type functionality, promoting code reuse and type safety. However, as we'll discuss further in the "Challenges" section, their over-extensive use can quickly lead to code that is difficult to comprehend.

Control flow constructs like match expressions and if let statements significantly streamline the implementation of multiple conditional cases. When utilized effectively, particularly with pattern matching, they contribute to highly elegant and readable code. The next example shows these contructs in practice.

1
// An enum to represent security events.
2
enum SecurityEvent {
3
    PortScan,
4
    LoginAttempt,
5
    Alert,
6
}
7

8
// Use `match` for an exhaustive check of all possible event types.
9
let event_1 = SecurityEvent::Alert;
10
match event_1 {
11
    SecurityEvent::Alert => println!("CRITICAL: Alert triggered."),
12
    SecurityEvent::PortScan => println!("INFO: Port scan detected."),
13
    SecurityEvent::LoginAttempt => println!("INFO: Login attempt detected."),
14
}
15

16
// Use `if let` for a concise check when you only care about one specific
17
// type.
18
let event_2 = SecurityEvent::PortScan;
19
if let SecurityEvent::PortScan = event_2 {
20
    println!("ACTION: Respond to port scan.");
21
}

When applied judiciously and limited to appropriate scenarios, declarative programming paradigms can result in cleaner code and accelerated development. However, excessive reliance on declarative approaches can introduce its own set of challenges, as we'll explore. For instance, using clap, a crate for parsing command line arguments, in its "derive mode"—#[clap(...)]—is easy, idiomatic, and readable, but it's crucial for the programmer to understand the underlying logic and implications of each attribute.

Ecosystem

A significant advantage of modern programming languages lies in their accompanying tooling ecosystem. While Python boasts tools like pip and uv—the latter written in Rust—, Rust provides Cargo, which truly acts as the "swiss army knife" for any Rust developer.

Cargo is an all-encompassing tool capable of compiling Rust code, initializing new projects following best practices, managing third-party modules (known as "crates" within the Rust community), executing tests, generating documentation, and performing static analysis with Clippy. This integrated toolchain is a profound time-saver, eliminating the need to wrestle with complex Makefiles or craft shell scripts for building and testing your codebase.

Furthermore, crates.io serves as an exceptional central repository for Rust crates. Beyond aggregation, it provides vital metrics such as usage statistics, dependency graphs, comprehensive documentation, and developer information. From a security perspective, this transparency is critical; relying on obscure or nascent crates without proper due diligence can significantly increase a project's exposure to supply chain attacks 🧨.

An interesting aspect of Cargo's build process is its "lazy" compilation for development. Given that compile times are a frequent point of discussion within the Rust community, developers commonly use cargo build or cargo run for faster compilation of non-optimized binaries during iterative development. Only when preparing for a release do they execute cargo build —release to enable full optimizations. These optimized versions are significantly smaller: in my own experience, an unoptimized build yielded a 24 MB binary, while the release version was 7 MB, a size I still found somewhat substantial for the code I've written 🤷.

The paramount advantage here is that once the binary is generated, unlike interpreted languages, users simply need to execute it on a supported architecture/OS, and it just works. The notorious "it works on my machine" syndrome becomes a relic of the past—remember my Python background. This results in a robust, self-contained executable, making it an invaluable asset for scenarios like incident response.

In a similar vein, numerous community crates significantly extend Rust's functionalities, enhancing the overall programming experience by reducing boilerplate and improving code ergonomics. From my perspective, thiserror, clap, rand, and tokio are stellar examples, though many other excellent crates undoubtedly exist.

The established conventions for structuring crates, whether for binaries or libraries, are remarkably well-defined and contribute to project maintainability as well. For example, the standard use of src/main.rs for binaries and src/lib.rs for libraries ensures consistency across projects, making it easier for developers to navigate unfamiliar codebases.

Errors and Tests

Rust embraces a robust error handling philosophy by implementing the Result<T, E> enum type, designed to explicitly convey success or failure rather than relying on exceptions. This pattern, especially when combined with the ergonomic ? operator, significantly streamlines error propagation and handling.

Utility functions such as .expect(), .unwrap(), .map_err(), and .ok_or() prove exceptionally useful for managing and transforming Result types. The next code listing shows these functions in action.

1
use std::fs::File;
2
use std::io::{self, Read};
3
use std::path::Path;
4

5
// This function attempts to read a file and returns a `Result`.
6
// It returns the file's content as a `String` on success.
7
// On failure, it returns an `io::Error` (E). It kind of simulates
8
// the std::path::{Path, PathBuf} types from Rust's standard library.
9
fn read_config_file<P: AsRef<Path>>(path: P) -> Result<String, io::Error> {
10
    // We use the `?` operator. If `File::open` fails, it
11
    // returns the error immediately from the function.
12
    let mut file = File::open(path)?;
13
    let mut contents = String::new();
14

15
    // The `?` operator also works here. If `read_to_string` fails,
16
    // the error is propagated.
17
    file.read_to_string(&mut contents)?;
18

19
    // If both operations succeed, we wrap the content in `Ok`.
20
    Ok(contents)
21
}
22

23
// In a security tool, you might use `.expect()` to handle a
24
// critical, non-recoverable error.
25
fn load_critical_config() -> String {
26
    let path = "critical_config.json";
27
    // `.expect()` will panic if the result is an error.
28
    // This is useful for unrecoverable errors that should halt the program.
29
    read_config_file(path).expect("Failed to load critical configuration file")
30
}

Rust's clear distinction between recoverable Errors and unrecoverable Panics simplifies decision-making in error scenarios. Moreover, the fact that both mechanisms gracefully clean up the stack before exiting contributes to safer and more robust code, preventing potential resource leaks or undefined behavior. The following snippet of code shows examples of both types of failures.

1
use std::fs::File;
2
use std::io::{self, Read};
3

4
// This function returns a `Result` (recoverable error).
5
// A caller can decide how to handle a potential failure.
6
fn read_file_contents(path: &str) -> Result<String, io::Error> {
7
    let mut file = File::open(path)?;
8
    let mut contents = String::new();
9
    file.read_to_string(&mut contents)?;
10
    Ok(contents)
11
}
12

13
// This function will cause a panic (unrecoverable error) on failure.
14
// It's used when we assume an operation should never fail in practice.
15
fn get_critical_secret() -> String {
16
    // We use `.unwrap()` here. If the file is not found, the program will
17
    // panic and print a message. The stack is cleaned up safely before the
18
    // program exits.
19
    let mut file = File::open("critical_secret.txt").unwrap();
20
    let mut contents = String::new();
21
    file.read_to_string(&mut contents).unwrap();
22
    contents
23
}

The primary challenge with Rust's error handling, particularly in complex applications, stems from its strong typing. Propagating errors upstream often necessitates explicit type conversions, which can be verbose in standard Rust. However, crates like thiserror elegantly mitigate this by providing derive macros for custom error types and automatic From trait implementations. This often leads to Rust projects featuring a dedicated error module to define a consistent error hierarchy—usually error.rs—, streamlining error handling across the application. While Rust inherently provides backtraces on panics, structuring your error types carefully allows for richer and more context-aware error reporting even for recoverable errors.

Rust offers a remarkably graceful approach to testing. I particularly appreciate the intuitive structure for defining tests and the built-in assertions like assert!, assert_eq!, assert_ne!, and #[should_panic]. The ability to collocate unit tests within the same file as the routines they're validating, encapsulated in mod tests blocks, is an excellent design choice, as seen in the next example.

1
// The function to be tested.
2
// It checks if a given port is a common service port (under 1024).
3
fn is_common_service_port(port: u16) -> bool {
4
    port < 1024
5
}
6

7
// The `#[cfg(test)]` attribute ensures this code is only compiled for testing.
8
#[cfg(test)]
9
mod tests {
10
    use super::*;
11

12
    // `#[test]` marks a function as a test.
13
    #[test]
14
    fn test_valid_port() {
15
        assert!(is_common_service_port(80));
16
    }
17

18
    #[test]
19
    fn test_high_port() {
20
        assert_eq!(is_common_service_port(8080), false);
21
    }
22
}

Challenges

Naturally, this unparalleled level of safety and fine-grained control comes with certain trade-offs. The very features that imbue Rust with immense power can, at times, also present challenges; a true "double-edged blade" phenomenon.

Mastering Rust's borrowing rules presents a steep learning curve, though a solid understanding of memory management principles significantly eases this process. This inherent "burden" is, in essence, the price of crafting truly secure code. While the ownership concept is undeniably powerful, it introduces numerous restrictions that necessitate various handling strategies. This has led to the development of different smart pointer types, such as Box<T>, Rc<T>, and RefCell<T>, each designed to address specific scenarios like heap allocation and shared ownership. While indispensable, these smart pointers can initially appear complex and counter-intuitive to newcomers. Some examples in the next listing.

1
// A basic struct that represents a finding from a security scanner.
2
// This is a simple type that can be copied and moved on the stack.
3
#[derive(Debug, Copy, Clone)]
4
struct SecurityFinding {
5
    cve_id: u32,
6
}
7

8
// `Box<T>` is a smart pointer for a value allocated on the heap.
9
// It allows a single owner and is used when the size of a type is unknown
10
// at compile time.
11
let finding_on_heap = Box::new(SecurityFinding { cve_id: 2023001 });
12

13
// The ownership of the `Box` is moved from `finding_on_heap` to
14
// `second_owner`. The compiler prevents us from using `finding_on_heap`
15
// after this.
16
let second_owner = finding_on_heap;
17
// The following line would cause a compile-time error:
18
// println!("{:?}", finding_on_heap); // ERROR: value borrowed after move
19

20
// `Rc<T>` is a "Reference Counted" smart pointer. It allows multiple parts
21
// of your code to share ownership of data on the heap.
22
use std::rc::Rc;
23
let shared_finding = Rc::new(SecurityFinding { cve_id: 2023002 });
24
let first_reader = Rc::clone(&shared_finding);
25
let second_reader = Rc::clone(&shared_finding);
26

27
// With `Rc`, all three variables (`shared_finding`, `first_reader`,
28
// `second_reader`) can access the data, and it will only be deallocated
29
// when the last one goes out of scope.
30
println!("Readers share a finding with CVE ID: {}", first_reader.cve_id);

Rust does not offer traditional object-oriented programming (OOP) support in the same vein as languages like Python or Java. While it's possible to write OOP-like code using structs and impl blocks, these constructs, though mimicking classes, do not encapsulate data and behavior in the exact same manner. From my perspective, as someone not heavily invested in strict OOP paradigms, this is acceptable. However, others more accustomed to conventional OOP might find this approach unfamiliar. The next listing shows struct and impl mimicking classes.

1
// In Rust, we define data and behavior separately.
2
// This `struct` represents the data for a network device.
3
struct NetworkDevice {
4
    ip_address: String,
5
    hostname: String,
6
}
7

8
// An `impl` block holds the behavior (methods) for the `NetworkDevice`
9
// struct. It's a key distinction from traditional OOP, where data and
10
// methods are declared together within a single `class` definition.
11
impl NetworkDevice {
12
    // This is an associated function, acting like a constructor.
13
    fn new(ip: String, host: String) -> NetworkDevice {
14
        NetworkDevice {
15
            ip_address: ip,
16
            hostname: host,
17
        }
18
    }
19

20
    // A method that operates on an instance of the `NetworkDevice` struct.
21
    // It takes a reference to `self`, allowing it to access the instance's
22
    // data.
23
    fn ping(&self) {
24
        println!("Pinging device at {} ({})", self.ip_address, self.hostname);
25
    }
26
}

While generics are an excellent concept for achieving code reuse and type flexibility, their extensive application can make code significantly more complex. This is particularly true for impl, fn, and struct definitions used with intricate where clauses and for clauses within impl blocks. Beyond the added cognitive load, a drawback of widespread generic use is the potential for increased boilerplate, as you often need to explicitly implement traits or specify bounds for specific types. The code in the next listing shows an example of it: fn...where...for is too much for me 😓.

1
use std::fmt::Debug;
2

3
trait SecurityCheck {
4
    fn check(&self) -> bool;
5
}
6

7
// —- Simple, readable generic code —-
8
fn run_simple_check<T: SecurityCheck + Debug>(item: &T) {
9
    println!("Running simple check on: {:?}", item);
10
}
11

12
// —- Overly complex, hard-to-read generic code —-
13
// The multiple clauses, including the `for` clause, add significant
14
// boilerplate and cognitive load, making the code's purpose difficult
15
// to parse at a glance.
16
fn run_complex_check<'a, T, I, U>(items: I)
17
where
18
    I: IntoIterator<Item = T>,
19
    T: SecurityCheck + Debug + 'a,
20
    U: FromIterator<T> + 'a,
21
    for<'b> T: AsRef<&'b str>,
22
{
23
    println!("Running complex check on a collection...");
24
}

Lifetimes, though conceptually straightforward prove challenging in practice. While the borrow checker frequently infers lifetimes implicitly, there are instances where explicit lifetime annotations are required. Defining something like &'a str and then reusing 'a throughout the code can quickly lead to visual clutter and confusion. It's a personal hope that future versions of the borrow checker will become even more adept at lifetime inference, thereby reducing this burden on the programmer 🙏.

A peculiar aspect of Rust's module system, at least initially, is the need to import specific traits to access their methods, even after importing the base type. For instance, after importing std::fs::File to instantiate a File object, you'd then need to explicitly import std::io::Write to use methods like file.write_all(...). This pattern, though understandable from a trait-based design perspective, can feel counter-intuitive for new users 😵‍💫.

From my perspective, over-reliance on metaprogramming (macros and attributes) tends to make the code overly declarative. This can introduce a level of implicitness that, in my opinion, sometimes deviates from Rust's general philosophy of explicitness. Nevertheless, when employed judiciously, metaprogramming constructs are undeniable time-savers, significantly simplifying tasks, while keeping the code readable, as previously shown with the thiserror crate in its derive mode.

While using metaprogramming constructs in Rust is relatively straightforward, authoring them is exceptionally challenging. Writing macros is considerably more complex than writing standard Rust code—and Rust itself is already a complex language. Personally, I intend to stay away of macro authorship due to this difficulty. I've heard that other modern languages, such as Zig ⚡, offer a more approachable experience in this domain, by the way.

Navigating complex dependency graphs can be challenging in any language, and Rust is no exception, though the issue isn't that Rust "doesn't encapsulate module dependencies" but rather the complexities of transitive dependencies. I encountered a scenario where my program directly depended on module [email protected] (the latest), but module A (also the latest version) had a transitive dependency on module [email protected] (an older version). This conflict forced me into a tough choice: either update module A to a release candidate that supported module [email protected], or downgrade my direct dependency on module B to match the version required by module A's latest stable release. This highlights a common semantic versioning challenge rather than a fundamental flaw in Rust's module system itself.

The Rust Programming Language Book

The Rust Programming Language book 📕 (TRPL) is an outstanding resource and a truly helpful initiative 🎖️. My only critique is its perceived lack of meaningful exercises and a tendency to sometimes feel like a comprehensive feature showcase rather than a deep dive into specific concepts. Perhaps a two-volume approach could address this. Nonetheless, it remains an undeniable fount of knowledge for aspiring Rustaceans. While Rustlings offers a decent interactive learning experience, in my opinion, it doesn't quite fill the gap for the kind of in-depth exercises 🏋️ and illustrative examples found in texts like Java: How to Program by Deitel.

Why Security Engineers Should Care About Rust

For security engineers, Rust offers a unique blend of performance, control, and inherent safety features that are incredibly valuable:

• Memory safety by design: Rust's ownership system, borrowing, and lifetimes eliminate entire classes of memory safety bugs in safe code at compile time. This proactive approach significantly reduces the attack surface of applications. That's why I view Rust as fundamentally safe, not just incrementally safer than C or C++: its safety model is enforced by the compiler, not bolted on through runtime checks or external tools. Understanding these mechanisms provides a deeper appreciation for memory corruption vulnerabilities, aiding in both defensive coding and offensive research.

• Systems-level control: Rust provides low-level control over hardware and memory without sacrificing safety, making it ideal for writing secure, high-performance tools often needed in information security. This includes custom network protocols, embedded systems security, or even kernel modules where precise control is paramount.

• Robust and self-contained binaries: Rust, through its tooling and build system, makes it straightforward to produce statically linked, self-contained binaries. This greatly simplifies deployment, particularly in constrained environments like air-gapped networks or incident response kits, where managing external dependencies is impractical. While not unique to Rust—languages like Go and C can also produce such binaries—Rust's tooling lowers the friction and integrates this approach seamlessly into modern workflows. These executables are less prone to "it works on my machine" issues and tend to offer greater reliability.

• Performance for security tools: Many security operations, such as log analysis, cryptanalysis, or high-volume network traffic processing, demand high performance. Rust's zero-cost abstractions mean you get C/C++-level performance without the traditional security pitfalls, enabling faster and more efficient security tooling.

• Vulnerability research and reverse engineering: Learning Rust deepens one's understanding of how programs interact with the operating system and manage memory. This knowledge is directly transferable to reverse engineering efforts, helping analysts better understand exploit primitives and analyze compiled binaries for vulnerabilities.

• Secure ecosystem: crates.io with its transparency features (dependencies, downloads) allows security teams to make more informed decisions when integrating third-party components, mitigating supply chain risks.

Rust empowers security engineers to build more resilient tools and applications while simultaneously enhancing their theoretical and practical understanding of low-level security concepts.

Final Thoughts

Overall, Rust 🦀 is a remarkably well-designed programming language. Its learning curve is, without a doubt, steep ⛰️. While not perfect, I firmly believe that among modern systems-level programming languages, Rust stands out as the premier choice, even with promising alternatives like Zig, which currently possesses a less mature ecosystem. Security engineers can significantly benefit from internalizing Rust's core concepts, leveraging them to sharpen their expertise in application security, vulnerability research, and the nuanced world of memory corruption bugs. I intend to continue exploring and utilizing Rust in the coming months, confident in its utility for my professional development. 👊

References

• The Rust Programming Language
• Rust by Example
• The Cargo Book
• Idiomatic Rust