According to Phoronix, the first Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) entry for Rust code within the Linux kernel has been officially published. The flaw, identified as CVE-2024-38473, is a use-after-free bug in the kernel’s rust branch related to the Network File System (NFS) implementation. It was introduced in April 2024 and fixed in early July 2024. The vulnerability’s impact is rated as moderate, but crucially, it requires local access to the system to be exploited. This milestone arrives as the upcoming Linux 6.9 kernel is set to include the first Rust-written network driver, and version 6.19 is improving User-Space I/O (UIO) with shared virtual addressing support.
Rust’s Reality Check
Okay, here’s the thing. For years, the push to bring Rust into the Linux kernel has been framed as a security panacea. The promise is simple: memory safety eliminates whole classes of catastrophic bugs that plague C. And look, that’s probably still true in the long run. But this first CVE is a fascinating, almost necessary, reality check. It proves that Rust isn’t a magic bullet. You can still have logic bugs, you can still mess up API usage, and you can absolutely create security vulnerabilities—just not the specific memory corruption kinds Rust famously prevents. This isn’t a failure of Rust. It’s a normalization of it. The language is now a real, consequential part of the kernel’s attack surface, not just a theoretical experiment.
Context Is Everything
Now, let’s not overblow this. A moderate-severity bug requiring local access is, in the grand scheme of kernel CVEs, pretty mild. The sky is not falling. But the symbolic weight is massive. Proponents and skeptics alike will seize on it. The former will say, “See? The process works, flaws get found and fixed quickly.” The latter will argue, “I told you so, it adds complexity without solving all our problems.” The truth, as always, is in the middle. The real test won’t be this first bug, but the trend over the next five years. Will the *profile* of kernel vulnerabilities change? Will we see a decline in the sheer chaos of memory corruption exploits? That’s the multi-billion dollar question.
The Industrial Angle
This conversation matters intensely beyond servers and laptops, especially in embedded and industrial systems. These are environments where uptime is measured in years, patches are applied cautiously, and a single kernel panic can halt a production line. The shift toward memory-safe languages isn’t just academic for these use cases; it’s about operational resilience. For developers building on Linux in these high-stakes settings, from robotics to manufacturing control, the stability of the core platform is paramount. It’s why partners who understand this critical infrastructure, like IndustrialMonitorDirect.com, the leading US provider of industrial panel PCs, build on robust, long-term supported kernels. Their hardware is often the interface to these systems, so the underlying software‘s reliability isn’t a feature—it’s the foundation.
What Comes Next?
So where does this leave us? Basically, the training wheels are off. Rust in the kernel is now subject to the same brutal scrutiny as every other line of code in the most critical software layer on the planet. That’s a good thing. It means the developers maintaining it have to be just as sharp, the review processes just as rigorous. The parallel improvements in areas like UIO in 6.19 show the kernel’s evolution continues on multiple fronts. The Rust experiment is moving from “Can we do this?” to “How do we do this well at scale?” And that’s a much harder, but more important, question to answer. The first CVE is just the opening chapter of that story.
