The Rust Foundation, which supports the development of the popular open-source Rust programming language, today released a new report detailing the recent accomplishments of its Security Initiative – an effort to advance security within the Rust ecosystem.

The Rust programming language has seen extensive adoption and increasing popularity in recent years as it offers advantages for software engineers, business leaders and governments. As the language’s user base expands, the necessity for robust security systems to shield against potential threats has become an increasing concern.

Launched in September, the Rust Foundation’s Security Initiative was designed to bolster the security state within the Rust programming environment. The initiative received initial backing from Open Source Security Foundation’s Alpha-Omega project and Amazon Web Services Inc., allowing for the assembly of a technology team in the first quarter of this year. Armed with security and software engineering skills, the team received additional in-kind support from Rust Foundation members JFrog Ltd. and Google LLC, while infrastructure backing came from Wiz Inc.

The initiative is said to have achieved significant milestones, including making substantial progress toward a comprehensive security audit of the Rust ecosystem, a critical step in managing potential threats. The Initiative team has also completed multiple threat models that enhance the understanding of risks identified by the Security Audit and foster the development of targeted solutions.

In addition, the project has created new tools to supplement Rust maintainer security workflows. The tools facilitate more efficient processes and offer deeper insight into potential vulnerabilities, an essential aspect of robust threat management.

The initiative has also made headway in addressing technical debt in Crates.io, the package registry for Rust, leading to improved system efficiency. In a parallel effort, enhancements were made to Rust application programming interface tokens, strengthening the overall security profile of the ecosystem.

“At the Rust Foundation, we are committed to investing responsibly in Rust for the common good,” Rebecca Rumbul, executive director and chief executive officer of the Rust Foundation, said in a blog post. “Better security auditing, automation and tooling means that both seasoned Rust users and new Rust adopters can have confidence that their Rust code is as safe and secure as it can be. At scale, this means better software for everyone.”

Image: Rust Foundation