IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
rOOM: A Rust-Based Linux Out of Memory Kernel Component
Summary :
The Linux kernel has been applied in various security-sensitive fields, so ensuring its security is crucial. Vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel are usually caused by undefined behaviors of the C programming language, the most threatening of which are memory safety vulnerabilities. Both the software-based and hardware approaches to memory safety have disadvantages of poor performance, false positives, and poor compatibility. This paper explores the feasibility of using the safe programming language Rust to reconstruct a Linux kernel component and open-source the component's code. We leverage the Rust FFI mechanism to design a safe foreign interface layer to enable the reconstructed component to invoke other Linux functionalities, and then use Rust to reconstruct the component, during which we leverage Rust's type-safety and ownership mechanisms to improve its security, and finally export the C interface of the component to enable the invocation by the Linux kernel. The performance and memory overhead of the reconstructed component, referred to as “rOOM”, were evaluated, revealing a performance overhead of 8.9% in kernel mode, 5% in user mode, 3% in real time, and a memory overhead of 0.06%. These results suggest that it is possible to develop key components of the Linux kernel using Rust in terms of functionality, performance, and memory overhead.
- Publication
- IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information Vol.E107-D No.3 pp.245-256
- Publication Date
- 2024/03/01
- Publicized
- 2023/12/14
- Online ISSN
- 1745-1361
- DOI
- 10.1587/transinf.2023MPP0001
- Type of Manuscript
- Special Section PAPER (Special Section on Empirical Software Engineering)
- Category
Authors
Linhan LI
Capital Normal University
Qianying ZHANG
Capital Normal University
Zekun XU
Capital Normal University
Shijun ZHAO
Chinese Academy of Sciences
Zhiping SHI
Capital Normal University
Yong GUAN
Capital Normal University
Keyword
Latest Issue
Copyrights notice of machine-translated contents
The copyright of the original papers published on this site belongs to IEICE. Unauthorized use of the original or translated papers is prohibited. See IEICE Provisions on Copyright for details.
Cite this
Copy
Linhan LI, Qianying ZHANG, Zekun XU, Shijun ZHAO, Zhiping SHI, Yong GUAN, "rOOM: A Rust-Based Linux Out of Memory Kernel Component" in IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information,
vol. E107-D, no. 3, pp. 245-256, March 2024, doi: 10.1587/transinf.2023MPP0001.
Abstract: The Linux kernel has been applied in various security-sensitive fields, so ensuring its security is crucial. Vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel are usually caused by undefined behaviors of the C programming language, the most threatening of which are memory safety vulnerabilities. Both the software-based and hardware approaches to memory safety have disadvantages of poor performance, false positives, and poor compatibility. This paper explores the feasibility of using the safe programming language Rust to reconstruct a Linux kernel component and open-source the component's code. We leverage the Rust FFI mechanism to design a safe foreign interface layer to enable the reconstructed component to invoke other Linux functionalities, and then use Rust to reconstruct the component, during which we leverage Rust's type-safety and ownership mechanisms to improve its security, and finally export the C interface of the component to enable the invocation by the Linux kernel. The performance and memory overhead of the reconstructed component, referred to as “rOOM”, were evaluated, revealing a performance overhead of 8.9% in kernel mode, 5% in user mode, 3% in real time, and a memory overhead of 0.06%. These results suggest that it is possible to develop key components of the Linux kernel using Rust in terms of functionality, performance, and memory overhead.
URL: https://global.ieice.org/en_transactions/information/10.1587/transinf.2023MPP0001/_p
Copy
@ARTICLE{e107-d_3_245,
author={Linhan LI, Qianying ZHANG, Zekun XU, Shijun ZHAO, Zhiping SHI, Yong GUAN, },
journal={IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information},
title={rOOM: A Rust-Based Linux Out of Memory Kernel Component},
year={2024},
volume={E107-D},
number={3},
pages={245-256},
abstract={The Linux kernel has been applied in various security-sensitive fields, so ensuring its security is crucial. Vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel are usually caused by undefined behaviors of the C programming language, the most threatening of which are memory safety vulnerabilities. Both the software-based and hardware approaches to memory safety have disadvantages of poor performance, false positives, and poor compatibility. This paper explores the feasibility of using the safe programming language Rust to reconstruct a Linux kernel component and open-source the component's code. We leverage the Rust FFI mechanism to design a safe foreign interface layer to enable the reconstructed component to invoke other Linux functionalities, and then use Rust to reconstruct the component, during which we leverage Rust's type-safety and ownership mechanisms to improve its security, and finally export the C interface of the component to enable the invocation by the Linux kernel. The performance and memory overhead of the reconstructed component, referred to as “rOOM”, were evaluated, revealing a performance overhead of 8.9% in kernel mode, 5% in user mode, 3% in real time, and a memory overhead of 0.06%. These results suggest that it is possible to develop key components of the Linux kernel using Rust in terms of functionality, performance, and memory overhead.},
keywords={},
doi={10.1587/transinf.2023MPP0001},
ISSN={1745-1361},
month={March},}
Copy
TY - JOUR
TI - rOOM: A Rust-Based Linux Out of Memory Kernel Component
T2 - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SP - 245
EP - 256
AU - Linhan LI
AU - Qianying ZHANG
AU - Zekun XU
AU - Shijun ZHAO
AU - Zhiping SHI
AU - Yong GUAN
PY - 2024
DO - 10.1587/transinf.2023MPP0001
JO - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
SN - 1745-1361
VL - E107-D
IS - 3
JA - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Information
Y1 - March 2024
AB - The Linux kernel has been applied in various security-sensitive fields, so ensuring its security is crucial. Vulnerabilities in the Linux kernel are usually caused by undefined behaviors of the C programming language, the most threatening of which are memory safety vulnerabilities. Both the software-based and hardware approaches to memory safety have disadvantages of poor performance, false positives, and poor compatibility. This paper explores the feasibility of using the safe programming language Rust to reconstruct a Linux kernel component and open-source the component's code. We leverage the Rust FFI mechanism to design a safe foreign interface layer to enable the reconstructed component to invoke other Linux functionalities, and then use Rust to reconstruct the component, during which we leverage Rust's type-safety and ownership mechanisms to improve its security, and finally export the C interface of the component to enable the invocation by the Linux kernel. The performance and memory overhead of the reconstructed component, referred to as “rOOM”, were evaluated, revealing a performance overhead of 8.9% in kernel mode, 5% in user mode, 3% in real time, and a memory overhead of 0.06%. These results suggest that it is possible to develop key components of the Linux kernel using Rust in terms of functionality, performance, and memory overhead.
ER -
English
