High Assurance Rust
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Novice: Systems Security
Introduction
Software Assurance
Rust Zero-Crash Course
Understanding Memory Safety and Exploitation
1. Software Perspective: CPU to Process
2. Assurance Perspective: Stack Safety
3. Attacker's Perspective: Breaking Safety (1/2)
4. Attacker's Perspective: Unifying Theory (2/2)
5. Debugging DIY Secret Obfuscation
6. Stack Exploitation
7. Software Perspective: Heap (1/2)
8. Software Perspective: Heap (2/2)
9. Heap Exploitation
10. Rust's Memory Safety Guarantees (1/2)
11. Rust's Memory Safety Guarantees (2/2)
12. Language-agnostic Mitigations
13. Case Study: Real-world Rust CVEs
14. Challenge: Vulnerability Research
Advanced Beginner: Core Project
Binary Search Tree (BST) Basics
1. Core BST Operations in Python
2. Problems Translating to Rust
3. The Importance of Balance
4. TODO
5. Challenge: TODO
Building an Arena Allocator
1. Let's Talk Allocators
2. A Stack-Only Arena
3. Index-based Data Structures
4. TODO
5. Challenge: TODO
A Self-balancing BST
1. Interface-relevant Traits
2. Scapegoat Trees
3. Insert
4. Remove
5. Find
6. Challenge: TODO
Digital Twin Testing
1. Basic QEMU Internals
2. How Semi-hosting Works
3. CLI REPL Harness
4. Limitations
5. TODO
6. Challenge: TODO
Building Maps and Sets
1. TODO
2. Challenge: TODO
Implementing Iterators
1. TODO
2. Challenge: TODO
Competent: Validation and Deployment
Static Verification
1. An Introduction to 1st Order Logic
2. Proving Absence of Panics
3. Deductively Verifying our Arena Allocator
4. Model Checking for unsafe Code
5. TODO
6. Challenge: Prove a Sorting Algorithm
Dynamic Testing
1. Introduction to Coverage-Guided Fuzzing
2. Building a Differential Fuzzing Harness
3. Using Miri to Detect Undefined Behavior
4. Benchmarking and Optimization
5. TODO
6. Challenge: Bug-hunting with Fuzzers
Operational Deployment
1. Understanding unsafe (1/3)
2. Understanding unsafe (2/3)
3. Understanding unsafe (3/3)
4. CFFI 101
5. C99 Interoperability
6. Python3 Interoperability
7. Runtime Balance Reconfiguration
8. TODO
9. Challenge: TODO
Maximizing Assurance
1. Rust Security Research
2. Rust's Limitations
3. Best Practices Beyond Rust
4. TODO
5. Challenge: TODO
Conclusion
Review
1. Key Concepts
2. Key Blue-Team Skills
3. Key Red-Team Skills
Appendix
1. Setup: Using our Docker Container
2. Inventory: Tools of the Trade
3. Inventory: Recommended Reading
4. Inventory: Additional Resources
5. Fundamentals: Stream Ciphers
6. Fundamentals: Type Systems
7. Fundamentals: Component-Based Design
8. Fundamentals: Memory Hierarchy
9. Fundamentals: Dynamic Linking
10. Theory: Inter-procedural CFGs
11. Misc: Size Optimization
12. Misc: The Typestate Pattern
13. Misc: C++ Interoperability
14. Misc: Compile-time Metaprogramming

Inventory: Recommended Reading

This is a complete inventory of recommended reading, books that appear with the tag [PERSONAL FAVORITE] in footnotes. We genuinely feel each book listed is either an essential read in its field or a reference worth keeping in arm's reach.

If you purchase a book using one of the affiliate links below, it helps support High Assurance Rust - in addition to the book you're buying!

Rust

Programming Rust: Fast, Safe Systems Development. Jim Blandy, Jason Orendorff, Leonora Tindall (2021).
- https://amzn.to/35cu1Za

Rust for Rustaceans. Jon Gjengset (2021).
- https://amzn.to/36GfSDU

Software

Computer Systems: A Programmer's Perspective. Randal Bryant, David O'Hallaron (2015).
- https://amzn.to/3IBnFA7

A Philosophy of Software Design. John Ousterhout (2021).
- https://amzn.to/3DbaPrp

Effective C: An Introduction to Professional C Programming. Robert Seacord (2020).
- https://amzn.to/3wBuNu7

Security

Practical Binary Analysis: Build Your Own Linux Tools for Binary Instrumentation, Analysis, and Disassembly. Dennis Andriesse (2018).
- https://amzn.to/3wvtCwa

Understanding Cryptography. Christof Paar, Jan Pelzl (2009).
- https://amzn.to/3IEYuNd