The Story
The Linux kernel is at the heart of today's Internet. Unfortunately, because it's written in C, it has a long history of memory safety vulnerabilities.
Securing the Linux kernel is imperative if we want a secure Internet. One of the best ways we can do that is by making it possible to write Linux kernel modules (e.g. drivers) in a memory safe language. To be honest, when we first started thinking about how to bring memory safety to the Linux kernel, the problem seemed intractable.
Then we learned that about the Rust for Linux project. Miguel Ojeda and Alex Gaynor did incredible work, both technically and in terms of making the case for Rust in the Linux kernel.
What We've Done
- We organized funding for Miguel Ojeda's work from April 2021 through July 2025.
- Gary Guo was funded to work part time on Rust compiler features and tools needed to support Rust in the Linux kernel between October 2022 and February 2023.
Rust support has been merged into the Linux kernel! The community of contributors is thriving.
See the links below for getting up to speed on this work.
What's Next
Prossimo's work on Rust in the Linux kernel is complete. As of August 2025, future funding will be handled by the Linux Foundation.
Links
More from the Prossimo blog
An Update on Memory Safety in the Linux Kernel
Rust drivers are on the way via growing interest and community.
Klint: Compile-time Detection of Atomic Context Violations for Kernel Rust Code
The klint tool will help facilitate adoption of Rust in the Linux kernel.
Funders
