Microsoft’s Vice President, David Veston, presented a report on the development of Windows protection mechanisms at the Bluehat Il 2023 conference. The report shared information on the use of Rust to increase Windows core safety. Furthermore, Veston stated that the Windows 11 nucleus will be added in a few months or even weeks.
Safe memory work and reduced errors in the code were among the main motives for the use of Rust. The report declared that the initial goal was to replace some internal types of C++ data with equivalent types provided in Rust. Currently, about 36,000 lines of Rust code are prepared for inclusion in the nucleus. The new code was tested and showed no negative impact on PCMark 10 package performance (office applications test), and in some microtests, the new code even performed faster.
The first area of implementing Rust was the DWRITECORE code that provided font parsing, and the second was the implementation of the type of Region data in Win32K GDI. The interface components of gdi (Graphics Driver Interface) have already successfully passed all tests using Windows, and the new code is planned to be turned on by default in Windows 11 Insider test assemblies. Another achievement associated with Rust is a translation into this implementation language Windows Syscall.
Microsoft’s developers spent six months on the project for the DWRITECORE code, and the new implementation rewritten on Rust increased the productivity of glyphs for the text by 5-15%. The report also included images and videos of the implementation of Rust code in Windows 11, demonstrating its potential benefits.
The use of Rust in Windows will undoubtedly improve its safety and performance. The implementation of Rust in Windows 11 is an exciting advancement that shows the great potential of this programming language in creating robust and safe systems.