cross-posted from: https://group.lt/post/44860

Developers across government and industry should commit to using memory safe languages for new products and tools, and identify the most critical libraries and packages to shift to memory safe languages, according to a study from Consumer Reports.

The US nonprofit, which is known for testing consumer products, asked what steps can be taken to help usher in “memory safe” languages, like Rust, over options such as C and C++. Consumer Reports said it wanted to address “industry-wide threats that cannot be solved through user behavior or even consumer choice” and it identified “memory unsafety” as one such issue.

The report, Future of Memory Safety, looks at range of issues, including challenges in building memory safe language adoption within universities, levels of distrust for memory safe languages, introducing memory safe languages to code bases written in other languages, and also incentives and public accountability.

More information:

• https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/research/report-future-of-memory-safety/
• https://advocacy.consumerreports.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/Memory-Safety-Convening-Report.pdf