Comment by orlp
8 hours ago
Supply chain risks are essentially a solved problem.
1. Set a minimum age on dependencies: https://github.com/rust-lang/cargo/issues/15973
2. Scan all dependency code with AI
Even if you don't do #2 yourself as long as anyone does in the age window you've set, you're protected. In the age of AI the "you can't read all dependency code" argument doesn't work anymore.
On top of the above modern age argument, let's compare the amount of vulnerabilities found in shipped Rust software due to supply chain attacks (0 to my knowledge) against memory safety vulnerabilities (the majority of all vulnerabilities).
There have been successful supply chain attacks against Rust developers due to build.rs but those were quickly dealt with, and should be a thing of the past once min-age hits stable (next release).
If I look at actual incidence involving memory safety issues compared to supply chain issues in general, it is the later which is much a higher risk to me.
And yes, there were successful supply chain attacks on Rust developers, even just recently: https://blog.rust-lang.org/2026/08/20/supply-chain-attack-on... despite this being a "solved" problem. I think this becomes worse with AI not better, while memory safety risks will probably get much less in other languages after possibly some higher rate for a while.
don't you then introduce a new risk?
with a gap between the update of your deps, you are at risk of systematically being unpatched for a window of time that the attackers know (just after a fix is published).
The above is a general rule protecting you against supply chain attacks by default. If there is an important CVE published with a patch you can manually review that patch and bypass the minimum-age requirement for that dependency specifically.