Date: 07/25/2024
Vendor: GrammaTech Technologies
Technology/Topic: Lifting Legacy Code To Safer Language (LiLaC-SL) – A DARPA-Sponsored Capability
URL: https://www.grammatech.com
TEM Video (milTube): https://www.milsuite.mil/video/watch/video/70578
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Welcome to the Technical Exchange Meeting (TEM)!
C++ is not memory safe. Software bugs cost the economy billions of dollars annually. A large fraction are memory errors, which are among the most difficult to repair. Memory safe roadmaps are being recognized as a best practice [CISA].
Today, adopting a new language requires either manual code translation or full-scale reimplementation of legacy code bases. These approaches are slow, costly, and error-prone, especially if the target language is unfamiliar.
GrammaTech’s unique capability migrates general-purpose C++ code to equivalent, human-maintainable, idiomatic Rust. Rust is a modern, efficient, and safe language, wiping out many memory-related programming errors. Benefits include:
— Largely frees human engineers from the chores of manual code translation or reimplementation
— Reduces likelihood of severe vulnerabilities being deployed in mission and safety-of-life critical systems by up to 70%.
— System CPU overhead to execute code is reduced by as much as 5X, improving efficiency and extending life of existing platforms.
— Reduces cost of cyber-attacks in the field: up to 100x more expensive to address in the field vs prior to deployment. On a per breach basis:
o Lost operations $1.3M
o Detection & Escalation $1.58M
o Post Breach Response $1.2M
o Mean Time to Identify (MTTI) 195 days
o Mean Time to Contain (MTTC) 77 days
– 2023 IBM Cost of Data Breach Report
DARPA funded the development of GrammaTech’s unique tool. According to industry experts at Red Hat, GrammaTech’s semi-autonomous capability to convert legacy C++ code to Rust is more than 2 years ahead of the pack. One of the potential applications for the company’s tools is to effectively extend the service life of existing and aging programs of record. The company is currently exploring this application with a large prime contracting responsible for sustaining some military programs – they require some s/w performance enhancements to support new chipsets as the older chips can no longer be sourced.
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