[vlc-devel] Rust work (discussion)

[Lyndon Brown]

On Tue, 2020-09-22 at 22:14 +0200, Pierre Ynard via vlc-devel wrote:
> > My desire for Rust stems primarily from the significant benefits
> > for security that I recognise a modern language like Rust, and in
> > particular Rust, has over C. VLC obviously is a very large and
> > complex
> > codebase, with a lot of code handling all sorts of complex input
> > data, both from local files and network data streams. It is a prime
> > candidate for benefiting from Rust in terms of security. VLC is my
> > preferred video player, and I'd personally feel much happier after
> > such a move. Ideally I want my kernel and entire userland switched
> > over.
> 
> That's not how security works. There is no silver bullet or universal
> tool, and you should be wary of people offering you one.

Of course indeed it's not a perfect silver bullet to eliminate all
possible security issues, but it's a huge step forward from where we
are with C, helping catch and prevent many instances of simple mistakes
that lead to them that are so easy to make in C.

> For example, there is a push to convert the entire web to HTTPS:
> that's
> partly about security, and partly a power grab and market domination
> strategy.
>