Microsoft shows slow progress on Rust for Windows drivers

"Developers keen to write Windows drivers in Rust now have improved tools and samples, but progress is slow and obstacles to production use remain. On the plus side, Deisinger said that Rust crates (packages) exist for creating valid Windows 11 drivers using WDM (Windows Driver Model), KMDF (kernel-mode driver framework), or UMDF (user-mode driver framework). WDM is the older, low-level approach, while KMDF and UMDF are the higher-level abstractions that most developers use."

"That said, Deisinger warned that drivers using these crates "still need to make use of unsafe blocks for interacting with the Windows operating system," removing some of the benefits of Rust, though there is still the benefit of safety guarantees for business logic code. The WDF (Windows Driver Frameworks, including both KMDF and UMDF) team is working on safe Rust abstractions that would enable developers to reduce the amount of unsafe code blocks, according to Deisinger."

"There is TPM a cargo extension called cargo-wdk too, which is evolving to be a capable tool for developing drivers in Rust. For example, typing "cargo wdk new --kmdf" will create a KMDF driver template. Future plans for cargo-wdk include ARM64 support, automatic installation of dependencies, and driver deployment to test machines. Given all this work, can developers actually ship drivers written in Rust? Not easily. The GitHub repository states that the project is in early stages and is "not yet recommended for production use.""

Rust crates exist for creating Windows 11 drivers using WDM, KMDF, or UMDF, enabling development across low-level and higher-level driver frameworks. Drivers still require unsafe blocks to interact with the Windows operating system, which reduces some of Rust's safety benefits while preserving safety guarantees for business logic. WDF teams are developing safe Rust abstractions to minimize unsafe code. Efforts to use Rust in the Windows kernel have begun and some changes shipped in Windows 11 24H2. The cargo-wdk extension provides templates and tooling with planned ARM64 support, dependency installation, and deployment features, but the project remains early-stage and not recommended for production.

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