Arachne Digital’s Commitment to Memory Safe Programming: Building a Secure Future for Thread and Tracery

The Arachne Digital mission has always been to create innovative and secure software solutions that empower our users and protect their data. Today, we are excited to announce a significant step forward in this mission: the development of memory safe roadmaps for two of our key projects, Thread and Tracery.

Why Memory Safety Matters

Memory safety vulnerabilities are among the most prevalent and severe issues in the software industry. These vulnerabilities arise when programming languages that do not manage memory automatically (such as C and C++) allow developers to make errors in memory handling, leading to potential exploits like buffer overflows and use-after-free errors. These exploits can compromise software integrity, leading to data breaches, system crashes, and other critical failures.

Recent studies highlight the widespread nature of these vulnerabilities:

• Prevalence of Memory Unsafe Code: Analysis of 172 critical open source projects showed that 52% contain code written in memory-unsafe languages, with 55% of the total lines of code being memory-unsafe.
• Dependency Risks: Even projects primarily written in memory-safe languages often depend on components written in memory-unsafe languages, posing hidden security risks.

You can read more about memory safe languages here.

Given these challenges, transitioning to memory safe programming languages is not just a technical necessity but a strategic imperative. Memory safe languages like Rust, Go, and Swift automatically handle memory management, significantly reducing the risk of memory-related vulnerabilities. By adopting these languages, we can enhance the security, reliability, and maintainability of our software, ultimately delivering safer products to our users.

Our Plan for Thread and Tracery

To ensure the highest standards of security for Thread and Tracery, we are embarking on a comprehensive project to develop memory safe roadmaps for both. This process involves several critical steps:

Comprehensive Codebase Audit

• Identify Memory-Unsafe Code: We will conduct a thorough audit of the Thread and Tracery codebases to identify all instances of memory-unsafe code.
• Catalogue Dependencies: We will list all third-party libraries and dependencies, noting which ones are written in memory-unsafe languages.

Software Architecture and Critical Components

• Map the Architecture: Understanding the overall architecture of Thread and Tracery, including major components and their interactions, will help us identify security-critical and performance-critical areas.
• Prioritise Components: We will prioritise the components that handle sensitive data or are frequently targeted by attacks for migration to memory safe languages.

Current Mitigation Strategies

• Review Existing Measures: We will document and assess current security practices, such as the use of static and dynamic application security testing (SAST/DAST) tools, code reviews, and secure coding guidelines.
• Evaluate Memory Safety Measures: We will evaluate existing measures specifically targeting memory safety and identify areas for improvement.

Development Practices and Tools

• Analyse the Development Workflow: Understanding the current development workflow, including CI/CD practices, testing frameworks, and deployment processes, will help us integrate memory safe practices effectively.
• Assess Tool Compatibility: We will identify the tools currently used for development, testing, and deployment and their compatibility with memory safe programming languages.

Team Expertise and Training Needs

• Evaluate Developer Skills: We will assess the current skill set of our development team regarding memory safe languages.
• Plan Training Programs: Based on our assessment, we will develop training programs to upskill our team in memory safe programming practices.

Long-term Goals and Constraints

• Align with Business Objectives: We will ensure that our memory safe roadmap aligns with Arachne Digital’s long-term goals and customer expectations.
• Consider Resource Constraints: Identifying budget, time, and personnel constraints will help us create a realistic and achievable roadmap.

Moving Forward

Developing memory safe roadmaps for Thread and Tracery is a complex but crucial endeavour. By systematically addressing each step and gathering the necessary information, we can create memory safe roadmaps for both our products. This allows Arachne Digital to make informed decisions that enhance the security and reliability of our software.

We believe that investing in memory safety is an investment in the future of secure, resilient software. We are committed to leading the way in adopting memory safe programming practices and invite our community to join us on this journey. Together, we can build a safer digital world.

Stay tuned for more updates as we progress on this important initiative!