Memory Safe Languages: Reducing Vulnerabilities in Modern Software Development

Memory vulnerabilities like buffer overflows and use-after-free errors continue to plague software systems—often with severe national security consequences. This report from NSA and CISA outlines how memory safe languages (MSLs) like Rust and Go shift the burden of safety from individual developers to the programming language itself. Instead of relying on post-hoc fixes, MSLs offer built-in safeguards that prevent whole classes of vulnerabilities by design. While full adoption may not be practical for all systems, strategic and incremental integration of MSLs offers a powerful path to more secure and reliable software development.