Only the antennae have the ability to turn objects to rust so attacking the body is safe. If the rusting ability was intended to destroy anything it comes in contact it would mention that in its description.
You are correct to be confused. The flavor text states that the touch of its armored hide causes rusting, but the creature stats do not have an attack listed that does such an attack. As per the monster stats, touching the monster has no ill-effect unless there is a correction listed somewhere.
The discrepancy between stats and description is probably due to the fact that the Rust ability of the rust monster in 3.5 had an additional paragraph stating that any metal weapon that deals damage to the rust monster immediately corrodes. Naturally, it made the rust monster extremely unsatisfying to fight against. Thus, the ability was changed, but one probably forgot to further adjust the description.
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You won't see an entry in the statblock for the hide, since the creature has no way to 'attack' with its hide, short of falling onto you from above.
The lack of a mention of damaging attacking weapons in the Rust ability is rather telling. But is it intentionally absent, or mistakenly missed out?
In all previous editions, the intent has explicitly been for the creature to rust metal weapons which strike it.
Time to FAQ and see.
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You won't see an entry in the statblock for the hide, since the creature has no way to 'attack' with its hide, short of falling onto you from above.
Such abilities are listed in defensive abilities and described below stat block. Compare to (for example) Babau's protective slime which damages weapons striking it.