While the company have been experimenting with the Rust language to improve its software, under Project Verona initiative, as Rust programming language is far better than the C/C++ languages commonly used to write micro-controller firmware.
According to Microsoft, for C++ developers who code complex systems, using Rust is a breath of fresh air. And the memory safety guarantees the compiler give, assures the developer much greater confidence that compiling code will be beyond memory safety vulnerabilities.
What is Rust & Why the Programming language?
Rust is a programming language that is focused on safety, though similar to the C++ language, but it provides better memory safety while ensuring higher performance.
Rust was designed at Mozilla Research by Graydon Hoare, with contributors including Brendan Eich, and Dave Herman, among others. The language was refined by the writing of Servo layout, which is a browser engine and the Rust compiler, a free and open-source software licensed under Apache License 2.0 and the MIT License.
just like C/C++, Rust has an optional “runtime” that is minimal, however the difference stems from its strong safety guarantees. Except, of course, you'd explicitly opt-out through usage of the “unsafe” keyword, Rust is absolutely memory safe. The safety guarantees from Rust is obtained by strict guidelines placed around the use of the unsafe keyword.
Memory safety issues in the C/C++ Languages
The term "Memory safety" refers to coding frameworks that protect the memory space from being taken-over by malware. But C and C++ languages are extremely good at writing low-level systems, and require very little resources on the machine, but they are very unsafe and, when developed, safety was not taken into considerations.
That is the more reason Microsoft has started experimenting with the Rust language in the attempt at minimizing bugs in their software, which will ultimately lead to memory safety in the related vulnerabilities.
Albeit, the major obstacle in achieving the goal is perhaps the fact that it isn't possible to rewrite all the software from scratch using Rust. Microsoft is, however attempting to make Rust co-exist with other languages, which unfortunately, can't guarantee complete safety.
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