Rust crate review: Rustls

Are you ready to take the security of your web applications to the next level? Look no further than Rustls, the Rust cryptography library that sets the standard for secure and reliable TLS connections.

Why Rustls?

Rustls is a TLS library written in the Rust programming language, built specifically for high-performance and reliability. The library is designed to be easy to use, with a small and simple API that can be integrated into your application without hassle. Rustls also boasts a number of advantages over other TLS libraries:

• Speed: Rustls is incredibly fast, thanks to its design and Rust's unique ability to optimize code for high performance. This means less time spent waiting for connections to establish, and faster overall performance for your application.
• Security: Rustls puts security front and center, with a focus on best practices, adherence to standards, and robust, secure code. This ensures that your application is protected against common security threats, and that your users' data is always secure.
• Flexibility: Rustls is highly configurable, allowing you to tailor the library to fit your specific needs. This means you can optimize performance, prioritize security, or customize other settings to suit your use case.

Rustls in Action

To get a better sense of Rustls in action, let's take a look at some of the features and use cases that make it such a great choice for web applications.

• HTTP/2 Support: Rustls supports HTTP/2 out of the box, making it easy to take advantage of the latest web technologies and protocols.
• Certificate Verification: Rustls includes full support for certificate verification, ensuring that your TLS connections are only established with trusted and verified certificates.
• Multi-threading: Rustls is designed to work seamlessly with multi-threaded applications, making it an excellent choice for high-performance web servers or other applications that require parallel processing.
• OpenSSL Compatibility: Rustls is compatible with OpenSSL, meaning that you can easily adapt existing applications that use OpenSSL to use Rustls instead.
• TLS 1.3 Support: Rustls supports the latest version of TLS, TLS 1.3, providing an additional layer of security and performance optimization.

Getting Started with Rustls

Ready to start using Rustls in your application? Here's how to get started:

1. Add Rustls to your project dependencies:

[dependencies]
rustls = "0.19.0"

2. Set up a Rustls ClientConfig or ServerConfig, depending on your use case:

use std::sync::Arc;
use rustls::{NoClientAuth, ServerConfig};
use rustls::internal::pemfile::{certs, rsa_private_keys};

fn load_server_config(cert_file: &str, key_file: &str) -> ServerConfig {
    let mut config = ServerConfig::new(NoClientAuth::new());
    let cert_file = &mut BufReader::new(File::open(cert_file).unwrap());
    let key_file = &mut BufReader::new(File::open(key_file).unwrap());
    let cert_chain = certs(cert_file).unwrap();
    let mut keys = rsa_private_keys(key_file).unwrap();
    config.set_single_cert(cert_chain, keys.remove(0)).unwrap();

    Arc::new(config)
}

3. Create a Rustls ClientConnection or ServerConnection, again depending on your use case:

use std::io::BufReader;
use std::net::TcpStream;
use std::sync::Arc;
use rustls::{Session, ClientSession, ClientConfig};

fn connect_to_server(servername: &str, port: u16) -> io::Result<ClientSession<'static, TcpStream>> {
    let tcp_stream = TcpStream::connect((servername, port))?;
    let mut config = ClientConfig::new();
    config.root_store.add_server_trust_anchors(&webpki_roots::TLS_SERVER_ROOTS);
    let config_ref = Arc::new(config);
    let client = rustls::ClientConnection::new(config_ref, servername.to_string());
    let mut session = ClientSession::new(&Arc::clone(&config_ref), client);

    session.set_alpn_protocols(&[b"http/1.1", b"h2"])?;

    Ok(session)
}

4. Take advantage of Rustls features, such as HTTP/2 support or certificate verification, in your application code:

fn main() {

    let session = connect_to_server("localhost", 8443).unwrap();
    session.write_all(b"GET / HTTP/1.1\r\nHost: localhost\r\n\r\n").unwrap();
    let mut plaintext = Vec::new();
    session.read_to_end(&mut plaintext).unwrap();

    println!("Response: {:?}", plaintext);
}

Conclusion

Overall, Rustls is an excellent choice for any web application that requires fast, reliable, and secure TLS connections. With its focus on simplicity, speed, and security, Rustls is a prime example of the power of the Rust programming language, and a testament to the strength of the Rust community.

Whether you're building a high-performance web server, a secure web application, or anything in between, Rustls is the TLS library you can count on. So why wait? Try Rustls today and take your web application security to the next level!

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