Rust Brings 4x Fewer Rollbacks, 25% Faster Reviews Over C++ …
Analytics India Magazine (Supreeth Koundinya)
Google, in its latest security update blog, revealed how the increasing adoption of Rust over C++ in the mobile operating system Android brings not only dramatic security improvements but also significant gains in developer productivity and code stability.
According to data published on November 13, Rust-based code changes in Android experience a fourfold lower rollback rate and spend 25% less time in code review compared to equivalent C++ changes.
Since introducing Rust as an alternative to C++ for systems programming in Android, Google has observed a steep rise in new Rust code.
While the volume of new C++ code has steadily declined, and as of 2025, the net lines of new first-party Rust code now rival those of C++.
Rust’s memory safety guarantees, which are enforced at compile time, have slashed memory-related vulnerabilities.
Google reports a more than 1,000x reduction in memory safety vulnerability density in Rust compared to C/C++.
“Historically, security improvements often came at a cost. More security meant more process, slower performance or delayed features, forcing trade-offs between security and other product goals,” said Google.
“The shift to Rust is different: we are significantly improving security and key development efficiency and product stability metrics.”
In practical terms, with roughly five million lines of Rust in the Android codebase, only one near-miss memory safety bug (CVE-2025-48530) has been identified. However, it was caught and fixed before public release.
“While C and C++ will persist, and both software and hardware safety mechanisms remain critical for layered defence, the transition to Rust is a different approach where the more secure path is also demonstrably more efficient,” said Google.
“Instead of moving fast and then later fixing the mess, we can move faster while fixing things.”
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