Safety and Security Critical Systems with Rust

Abstract Rust is a modern systems level language with built in safety features providing strong guarantees to memory safety and defined behavior. In this work we identify challenges and opportunities for adopting Rust in the context of safety-critical systems. In particular we focus on software safety and security requirements akin to ISO 26262, IEC 61508, and ISO/SAE 21434. We discuss Rust based development in relation to commonplace C/C++ software design and validation processes. Furthermore we compare two distinct system categories: hosted and bare-metal systems and which opportunities and challenges developers face in the context of safety and security certification in each of them.