https://kerkour.com (Ab)using technology for fun & profit. en Mon, 16 Oct 2023 05:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/avif-failure I was reading about the AV1 video codec and the derived AVIF image format and decided to experiment with it. The results are impressive: PNG file size can be divided 16e0acacc4f90925c184d96176066871a9701e1bc22d8a7b5e227d9cbb6d5461 Fri, 14 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-scalable-backend-services While Rust is not as productive as Go and its legendary standard library to write backend service, Rust's rich type system, compiler-enforced correctness and zero-cost abstraction make it a great 83c89641a02fe424d30c56ad8509c6580a6082ba213a56b36fc2b02a31f99b38 Wed, 12 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/firecracker-sandboxing-rust Between user code and rogue AI agents, there recently has been huge regain in interest for sanboxing solutions. We've seen last time how to use landlock to drop the privileges 510c7fb186672f1804944184a2c681ed8427523ff48a6041512aeccd8fea286f Wed, 05 Aug 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/diskless-infrastructure In the same way that correct software architecture can bring many benefits in terms of costs and performance, a good architecture for infrastructure can significantly improve the reliability and reduce 93c12000e175e76ebf8989f22679f765279dc9a7b7ea26fdf7b4bcc78786b447 Mon, 27 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/write-everyday AI. The risks are real. (just kidding, this article is 100% human produced) How? I have a huge backlog of ideas to write about. The most important part is to 9101ce52613e3f54d507f0c16ece36cb8bc9c2244036d9a4e8955d17298cbb99 Thu, 23 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-service-hardening-and-production-checklist There isn't a lot of resources about how to actually deliver Rust projects to your users: workflows, security hardening and artifacts management, so here is the checklist I use to af92867f302c4a87c7dabab04de873b9f1a28af4ab6d13f2094a9579af1a8778 Wed, 22 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/128-bit-keys-post-quantum Quantum computers are a threat to traditional cryptography, more specifically to asymmetric cryptography (signatures and key exchanges) with Shor's algorithm enabling fast factoring of big numbers. e8c13a3115c1096fd8f56c820a6067dbf749ee8a0d4fef010b789075296365b7 Tue, 21 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/common-cases-optimization One thing I've learned working on https://github.com/rust-stdx/stdx (Rust's extended standard library), is that libraries often have common cases that are worth optimizing for. b72f667ccd652411e894d611f80181f731e11473618e165ae14ae6c083845100 Mon, 20 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/golang-release-exciting Go 1.27rc2 was released 10 days ago and Go 1.27 is due for August. Let's be honest, this release is freaking awesome! Generic methods? Yeah! UUID in the standard library? b834a08a804caee9b81d8c7ba50ef57071494ec66d5722e8146a3db7f4cbc929 Fri, 17 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/from-microservice-to-subprocess You were going to pack your bag and go back home when your manager stops you and tell you about this new feature. To surf the meme wave, you will 5c6ee8da9678ba3f3d19102248657aff6bafb9a99c03e2c45323730de7b23dee Thu, 16 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-hype First, let's be clear, this post is not intended to fuel any programming language holy war. I wrote this post because I've sometime been late to understand the benefits of 4a9f93ce11ca792eb909f20cf1219015d6a248573d0a93dd4e2b38fb7e4a86a7 Wed, 15 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/software-craftsmanship-last-mile-delivery I've always considered myself a software craftsman. I love clean APIs, efficient code and great user experience. If our entire world is about to be rewritten in Rust governed by 73b56a5b117a54fa1a48cbaf14b4437f4e2785fbd776eea0ccc5089a3287aa45 Tue, 14 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/ai-slop-vulnerabilities-terrifying Developers working on popular projets are inundated with hallucinated vulnerability reports, leading people to downplay the risks associated with AI-assisted vulnerability hunting. But hear me out: it should wake you df99772b1907e1a1c6e08da0481de4fc8e4e22746d40e0d04875133fa3f72030 Mon, 13 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/blogging-productivity-momentum People are sometime wondering how I can be so "productive" with my blog (granted that publishing brainfarts can be called "produtivity"). Come here, I will tell you my secret. I c192927fabf7b6739e070087e9460a119252346e05a52b0817f1f9028f2ee57c Fri, 10 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/smallvec-rust Hear me out: While Rust, the language, gives you all you need to build libraries and programs that can scale from microcontrollers to big servers and everything in between, in f89611fe0f1df861e96409cfc4382230afaf53c86c87b7909d30b3a983810ba5 Thu, 09 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rustcrypto-slow-simd-rust Now that I have your attention, let's be clear, RustCrypto packages are not "slow", they are most probably "fast enough" for your use case. Yet, I couldn't unsee how faster 75e1119a0c090cde69b5425eedd261f603a638501f5630656ecc9e9816e27864 Wed, 08 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/s3-vs-nfs While I agree that S3 is far from perfect and I would love to see a newer S4, the Super Simple Storage Service, from what we've learned in the past 6c4210a2e25a35b5bfb3601d4c328bc864e9f58ff97777c511a342ebfd015078 Mon, 06 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-high-performance-memory-fragmentation-allocations I'm currently working on a TLS (Transport Layer Security) implementation for stdx (Rust's extended standard library), and one of the main requirements is to be able to use it on 840e6f8a40fb8700c79edaa318f54b1cc5cc9714b1496f9b65d7ae31a4756444 Wed, 01 Jul 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/iroh-v1-p2p Just last week, the iroh project announced the release of its v1.0. What is iroh? Well, I'm glad you're asking because it's a very interesting project that I'm following for 766989572cce46fcb6c7c798f6bc69015b5c058532fa4cbbda0c3e5e1af08943 Wed, 24 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/quic-tcp Most of the literature about QUIC RFC 9000 describes it as a replacement for TCP + TLS, with the traditional use case of communication over IP in mind. It's true, 0fa1d163b715386209389eb5eaa3c169ef896dceb28a35af7efa21f93cb283b0 Mon, 22 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/xxh3-zen5 I just ran a quick benchmark comparing the different xxHash hashing functions on an AMD Zen 5 EPYC processor (in pure Rust, from https://github.com/rust-stdx/stdx), and Ho My G..., XXH3 is a5b2b868ccbe5bcb771b49d1b26be35226f35d9dedf3339aff543e9a6d429b2c Fri, 19 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/stdx-cratesio Why stdx is not on crates.io While I think that the xxx aspect of stdx has been well received, a lot of Rust developers were suffering with the current status 26047382554ded68284af06c5705889b0bfbb972e698b0fed8c334b5e65b28b8 Wed, 17 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/blake3-really-fast-zen5 Just ran a quick benchmark comparing different hashing functions on a Zen 5 EPYC processor (in pure Rust, from https://github.com/rust-stdx/stdx), and Ho My G..., BLAKE3 on Zen 5 is crazy 1cb96d1c5a027e249e6348b042f6de92b7fde526ea71aa193e380947240c5ca8 Mon, 15 Jun 2026 06:00:01 +0000 https://kerkour.com/faster-horses When something is so obvious to you, and yet the status quo is moving in the opposite direction, congratulations, you have found an opportunity. Tt's time to get your hands a3acb957a939d7add93c36dc34c4c61ee5a2263ed8cf29ce2bb0b08174b8a57d Mon, 15 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/git-commit-injection It's now common knowledge that LLMs / AI agents are vulnerable to all kind of injections, so attackers are being more and more creative to find new entrypoints. One commonly 2c2da31b6d4b14fea7fa1e45a059e5ca0bb3e7a6c26198eba6be3c16bc516e96 Thu, 11 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/stdx From embedded firmware (where it's badly needed) to big servers passing by cross-platform applications used by billions of people, the foundations of the computing stack are being rewritten in Rust. 81c0c78c442764dfee08cf604702944cca52786f4b57e0169330538f71be9b52 Wed, 10 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/new-rust-monorepo-architecture I've just saw a project using the dreaded monorepo architecture: service1-package1/ service1-package2/ service1-package3/ ... service2-package1/ service2-package2/ ... I don't like it because packages are not grouped by context and domain. 23b245f573f188d9e7087e3d3273b2db3946dce148f8bb00acc7b865a9d580a9 Tue, 09 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/open-source-golden-age-ai While a few people complain that AI is "stealing Open Source", training on Open Source code and giving nothing in return, I'm currently living the complete opposite: we are in 72cd3d5628d6338ead0f90e5d8da80ffc3fdea96764eede91ea3a79668d34728 Fri, 05 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/async-rust-cooperative-scheduling-tokio Threads were designed to parallelize compute-intensive tasks. However, these days, a lot of applications (such as a network scanner) are I/O (Input / Output) intensive. Thus, threads have two significant 12e99076c2b79ea37e3dc5e89cf793c1c83f980c457e5109899d8174080eca8a Wed, 03 Jun 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-monorepos Use monorepos My very unscientific analysis of the Rust ecosytem has come to the conclusion that Rust developers are wasting way too much time managing packages and dependencies. Whoever has 9f2afa819280d85688d6e305464344e53244b86f25cdfba976d599fe7508dcf1 Wed, 27 May 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-organize-large-projects-code-error-handling As a Rust project grows in size, it can take a non-trivial amount of efforts to keep it in a clean state that will not impede your and your co-workers' 3965e031dc239c000071601a5d418330757482d4864ac4e1c9f401cc16721360 Wed, 20 May 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/the-limits-of-rust "Is Rust a great fit for this project?" I get this question quite frequently so I think it's time to write down my thoughts if it can help to avoid d343905b0fa523a8e5bacee482d63de6260292ffdb4b687f1ba25ed30dd79908 Wed, 13 May 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-cross-platform-apps The cheapest way to learn is to learn from others, so I always take a day every week to see what other organizations are doing and how they are doing 71002d8cc43d7b52f9d2905bbea33f81d36f513d66c8a0179fc115509da0f76c Wed, 06 May 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-databases Turso, Neon, Polars, Databend, Materialize, DataFusion, InfluxDB, Quickwit and even ripgrep. Outside of DuckDB and PostgreSQL's core, most, if not all, the most-impactful projects in the database world are now 4ee0b3faa5872dbc22a549c37173d52775e62b1785c09047ed27729b37ba16c2 Wed, 29 Apr 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/post-quantum-cryptography-recommendations-rust There recently has been a lot of noise about quantum computing breakthroughs recently after Google's articles Quantum frontiers may be closer than they appear and Safeguarding cryptocurrency by disclosing quantum 72c7bc83c47b72ffb0951863f192ea3250fe0ab9648c79f006ebca5dd1d21434 Wed, 22 Apr 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-extended-standard-library Supply Chain attacks are all the rage these days, with many high-profile attacks that were carried against the Python ecosystem (with litellm), JavaScript (with axios) and WordPress in the last f9ac577f8462e2a24241f581327a49d096de4f63ac9ef4789e2c112bf1736d6f Wed, 15 Apr 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-supply-chain-nightmare An essential part of being able to say "I told you so" is in fact having told you so. Well, here we are. For those living under a rock (lucky f9868bd6c5c67b2516f80880cdbaa13b70b17e633cb8e69f5e84e07b008bc0da Wed, 08 Apr 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-compiler-correctness-bugs Over the decades, Humans have proved to be pretty bad at producing bug-free software. Trying to apply our approximative, fuzzy thoughts to perfectly logical computers seems doomed. While the practice 6ad8d9327272b697676ac973ef3dea6781bf82296f75c462283c147301d3947a Wed, 01 Apr 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-esp32-pentest Growing up with James Bond, Alex Rider and Inspector gadget, I've naturally always been fascinated by gadgets that enable the hero to spy and fight the badies. Fast forward a 74d0825c5151063b5f36fef47998888d5016b654f57980c2f4ca1e0358199a15 Wed, 25 Mar 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-docker-small-secure-images While Docker is now the main way to distribute backend software and CLI tools, you may be wondering how to build minimal and secure Docker images for your Rust projects. 28f7924bd6c0af732dcc33eed977615da1971e91b39705d8090aa064f06a2ddd Wed, 18 Mar 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/ai-maximalism I think I've finally understood why some people find value and love to tinker with AI assistants such as WhateverClaw while I find them (mostly) useless or even the idea 81735843d86af55dc8d8af5f912e3b0e556fb2feeb5276972ae1fe0eb104f5ab Mon, 16 Mar 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-eating-postgres While most people see PostgreSQL as a simple database, like MariaDB or CLickHouse, it has in fact evolved into a "data kernel", managing how data is stored and queried, in fa08e9f5dc0fc301aeeb0846ce6ea6e1bdb2ab16e99f8cf067308892001bba3d Wed, 11 Mar 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-postgres-everything I love simple, boring and reliable tools. In the software world, the two best are without a doubt Rust and PostgreSQL. One example: a backend service I'm working on processes 3a8c726f3d7d6c3fb81f57a117a381e1a33a2ee963e6bfae8b3444e67ff27b65 Thu, 05 Mar 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/ai-wishlist-riscv May the hardware shortages empower European and Chinese companies to drastically boost investments into RISC-V hardware so it could become a viable architecture for production workloads earlier than expected. 8dfe8f14f6cce2398d59302019e260a6ba7ae48b9d493d96a539686ecb33bfab Wed, 25 Feb 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/sha256-length-extension-attacks Some time ago, we saw that SHA-2 (SHA-256 & SHA-512) should probably be your function of choice for 2030 and beyond, because SHA-3 is too slow and BLAKE3 is (unfortunately) 953565b1238bbd6c7fb0962297802413ead91048fe4ca29c5bb4175003befa92 Tue, 24 Feb 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/nist-cryptography-backdoor While common people suffer from insecure systems (data theft, identity and financial fraud, blackmail...), governments love to be able to stick their nose wherever they want, whenever they want, something 978b0d0c679bc837a8d5d5ce65c01bcbc9421fadc1429c18d680f7f8e4a92a8d Mon, 23 Feb 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-software-engineering-reliability A lot of reasonable people may perceive my enthusiasm for Rust as misguided fanaticism, but it isn't. It's cold pragmatism. Sherlock Holmes liked to say "When you have eliminated the 0b3674bc75293ab2f98ab9030ad9889200ed4e4d6b8b1e445855138d78b5e116 Wed, 18 Feb 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/use-phone-too-much How much time (and how many times) did you use your phone this weekend? What about at this restaurant? While waiting for red lights? In bed, before sleeping and just 960f0ad2a48c7501bfb56e098f275ef46c80eaed0d82bf4bbf485f2bc63e2fec Sun, 15 Feb 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/rust-production-checklist While a lot of time is spent on design patterns and low-level tricks such as SIMD accelerations, I'm suprised that very few resources are available to actually deploy Rust software 779cf70514673cea4481a5df7e80943b59b6527d7086f0711379efbac485c9bd Wed, 11 Feb 2026 06:00:00 +0000 https://kerkour.com/turso-sqlite I love Rust and I love SQLite, so you can guess. Iwas pretty excited when I lerned that "SQLite was rewritten in Rust" What is SQLite, actually? 2 things: a 5cfb1a17f3f6003da34a52acd424fd73d259b65bcb433b280c28996267246b40 Wed, 28 Jan 2026 06:00:00 +0000