Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp
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Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp
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Re: Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp
#2Very cool! I'm wondering if Signal is doing something similar? libsignal is implemented in Rust, but I don't know about the other parts.
Re: Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp
#3> We believe that this is the largest rollout globally of any library written in Rust.
I suppose this is true because there's more phones using WhatsApp than there are say Windows 11 PCs.
Given that WhatsApp uses libsignal, is it safe to assume that they haven't been using the Rust library directly?
Re: Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp
#4> We believe that this is the largest rollout globally of any library written in Rust. I suppose this is true because there's more phones using WhatsApp than there are say Windows 11 PCs. Given that WhatsApp uses libsignal, is it safe to assume that they haven't been using the Rust library directly?
WhatsApp doesn't use libsignal, and Android is already pretty Rusty and deployed more than WhatsApp around the world (not just smartphone. Tons of "embedded" use cases also run on custom Android)
Re: Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp
#5> We believe that this is the largest rollout globally of any library written in Rust. I suppose this is true because there's more phones using WhatsApp than there are say Windows 11 PCs. Given that WhatsApp uses libsignal, is it safe to assume that they haven't been using the Rust library directly?
WhatsApp doesn't use libsignal, and Android is already pretty Rusty and deployed more than WhatsApp around the world (not just smartphone. Tons of "embedded" use cases also run on custom Android)
[deleted]
Re: Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp
#6The hardest part of a rewrite like this is usually maintaining bug-for-bug compatibility with the legacy parser rather than the actual Rust implementation. Most real-world media files are malformed in some way that the C++ code implicitly handled, so if you write a strict parser you end up breaking valid user data. Differential fuzzing seems like the only practical way to map that behavior without manually reviewing millions of edge cases.
Re: Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp
#7> We believe that this is the largest rollout globally of any library written in Rust. I suppose this is true because there's more phones using WhatsApp than there are say Windows 11 PCs. Given that WhatsApp uses libsignal, is it safe to assume that they haven't been using the Rust library directly?
If you watch "Microsoft is Getting Rusty: A Review of Successes and Challenges" it appears the whole effort is more on the Azure side, and besides some timid adoption like GDI regions, there is a lukewarm adoption of Rust on Windows side, still pretty much a C and C++ feud.
Re: Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp
#8> We believe that this is the largest rollout globally of any library written in Rust. I suppose this is true because there's more phones using WhatsApp than there are say Windows 11 PCs. Given that WhatsApp uses libsignal, is it safe to assume that they haven't been using the Rust library directly?
WhatsApp doesn't use libsignal, and Android is already pretty Rusty and deployed more than WhatsApp around the world (not just smartphone. Tons of "embedded" use cases also run on custom Android)
Like our gym devices that have a full tablet to run a basic application to control weights, talk about wasting money.
Re: Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp
#9The hardest part of a rewrite like this is usually maintaining bug-for-bug compatibility with the legacy parser rather than the actual Rust implementation. Most real-world media files are malformed in some way that the C++ code implicitly handled, so if you write a strict parser you end up breaking valid user data. Differential fuzzing seems like the only practical way to map that behavior without manually reviewing…
It sounds like it's a design goal of this "wamedia" to _not_ maintain bug compatibility with media players.
Re: Rust at Scale: An Added Layer of Security for WhatsApp
#10Earlier quoted context omitted.
WhatsApp doesn't use libsignal, and Android is already pretty Rusty and deployed more than WhatsApp around the world (not just smartphone. Tons of "embedded" use cases also run on custom Android)
Like our gym devices that have a full tablet to run a basic application to control weights, talk about wasting money.
It doesn't make sense for that device alone, but the vendor probably supplies all the different equipment in the gym. Using a tablet simplifies their supply chain, deployment, debugging/repair, app update process and simply supports more features. There are probably some connectivity features on the device, for example. When you look at all of that together, it's hard to argue it's wasting money.
It's like complaining about Electron apps. For sure I love small native apps like everyone else. But, if Electron enables a company to ship cross-platform apps and iterate faster, who am I to say no?
(I happen to have seen some of those tablets in diagnostic mode and poked around a bit. These things are much more complicated than you think.)