TRACTOR (TRanslating All C TO Rust)

2024: Initiative Announcement

On July 31, 2024, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Directorate USA DARPA announced the TRACTOR (TRanslating All C TO Rust) initiative to develop a software translator for automatic code conversion in C and on. C++ Rust It is assumed that this will improve the safety of products.

The DARPA report said that one of the main problems associated with the use of C/C + + are difficulties in memory management. Programming languages ​ ​ like C allow developers to directly manipulate memory, which can cause errors (such as a buffer overflow) and create vulnerabilities. Uncertain behavior is called another problem. Translating programs to Rust will help improve the quality of software, but an effective translator is needed to complete the task. The TRACTOR project is aimed at creating such a tool.

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Specialists will use machine learning tools and large language models (LLM) to automatically translate program code from C to Rust. It is expected that the final result will be comparable to that demonstrated by highly qualified Rust developers. This will eliminate a whole class of memory management vulnerabilities. This is important since many DoD systems are written in C/C + + and therefore may contain errors.

Rust forces the programmer to do everything right. It may seem that the rules provided for by this language limit opportunities, but when you get used to them, they give freedom. As soon as you realize that these measures provide protection, you become freer and can focus on more important things, "says Dr. Dan Wallach, head of the TRACTOR initiative.[1]

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