Episode

ExpressVPN with Pete Membrey

Podcast: Rustacean Station
Published: Mar 24, 2025
Duration seconds: 3487
Processing state: processed
Canonical source: https://rustacean-station.org/episode/pete-membrey/
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Summary

Pete Membrey, Chief Research Officer at Kape Technologies, explains why ExpressVPN is migrating critical components from C to Rust. The discussion highlights how Rust eliminates entire classes of memory-safety vulnerabilities while maintaining low-level performance.

Topics

Rust programming
Memory safety
ExpressVPN
Systems programming
Cybersecurity
C programming
Software engineering
Network protocols

Highlights

Main idea: Rust serves as a direct successor to C by providing low-level hardware control without the 'sharp edges' of manual memory management
Practical takeaway: Using Rust libraries like 'lightway' allows developers to build high-performance networking tools that are inherently protected against buffer overflows
Failure mode: Relying on C for modern, mobile-centric networking leads to security vulnerabilities that account for a massive percentage of critical bugs
Comparison: Unlike Go, which excels at web services, Rust is better suited for bare-metal and performance-critical tasks where predictable resource usage is vital
Learning benefit: Studying Rust's ownership model improves a developer's ability to write better, more efficient code in even higher-level languages like Python

Chapters

1:00 Introduction and Background: A brief introduction to Pete Membrey's history in programming, from the Commodore 64 to high-frequency finance.
5:20 Benchmarking and Performance: Discussing the overlap between performance optimization in finance and the benchmarking needs at ExpressVPN.
14:10 Building Secure Libraries: The strategy of creating open-source, library-based implementations that provide safety through callbacks and controlled interfaces.
18:30 The Dangers of C: Reflecting on the memory safety risks and 'finger-slicing' errors common in traditional C development.
22:50 Transitioning to Safe Rust: How the team uses 'unsafe' Rust for specific low-level needs while building the rest of the logic in safe, robust code.
31:30 Rust vs. Go and Zig: Comparing the ecosystem and use cases of Rust, Go, and Zig, particularly regarding concurrency and hardware proximity.
53:40 Security Audits and the Future: The impact of Rust on security audits and why Rust represents 'the way forward' for systems programming.