Rust Could Eliminate 80% of Linux Kernel CVEs!

Greg Kroah-Hartman, Linux stable maintainer, presented at RustWeek 2026 a proposal that could eliminate roughly 80% of Linux kernel CVEs. The core idea is a new Rust type called `Untrusted<T>`, developed with Benno Lossin, which attaches a compile-time marker to data arriving from user space or hardware. This forces explicit validation before the data can be used, with no runtime overhead. Rust already addresses around 60% of kernel bugs by catching unchecked error returns and forgotten lock releases at compile time. The `Untrusted<T>` type is not yet merged — it requires changes to the Rust compiler and depends on related work on field projections. Greg called for more Rust kernel developers to help move the effort forward.