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Canonical said it has spent roughly three years moving selected low-level Ubuntu components from C to Rust as part of a broader effort to improve memory safety in security-critical code. The company highlighted Rust rewrites of AppArmor and snap-confine, arguing that replacing unsafe memory handling patterns common in C can reduce vulnerability classes that frequently affect foundational system software.
Canonical also said it is investing in automated C-to-Rust translation and using AI-assisted techniques to analyze, migrate, and validate code during the transition. The company stressed that automation is being paired with conventional assurance measures, including testing, fuzzing, and security review, to harden Ubuntu’s defensive components while modernizing its codebase.
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Canonical reported Rust rewrites of AppArmor and snap-confine as part of its secure-engineering work around Ubuntu. The stated goal is to reduce classes of memory-unsafe flaws common in C and strengthen defensive components.
Canonical said it has been pursuing a migration of selected low-level, security-sensitive code from C to Rust for about three years to improve memory safety and reduce vulnerability risk. The effort includes use of automated and AI-assisted methods alongside testing, fuzzing, and security review.
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