Building a Linux Kernel Module in Rust: Zero Panics in 14 Months Production

How Rust’s type system prevented 23 memory safety bugs that crashed our C kernel module weekly Building a Linux Kernel Module in Rust: Zero Panics in 14 Months Production How Rust’s type system prevented 23 memory safety bugs that crashed our C kernel module weekly Rust kernel modules bring memory safety to the kernel’s unsafe foundation — type guarantees at compile time prevent runtime crashes in production systems. Our custom network driver, written in C, was a disaster. It crashed production servers 3–4 times per week. Each crash required manual intervention, customer downtime, and post-mortem analysis. The bugs were always memory safety issues: use-after-free, null pointer dereferences, buffer overflows. We spent 18 months fighting these crashes. Then Linux 6.1 merged initial Rust support, and we decided to rewrite our driver in Rust. The team’s reaction: skeptical bordering on hostile. “Rust in the kernel? That’s experimental nonsense.” “C works fine if you’re careful.” “This will