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Theseus OS has no context switches, while being even more secure than conventional OSes, all without any reliance on hardware-provided isolation. Theseus is
by Aerbil313 3y ago
Theseus OS has no context switches, while being even more secure than conventional OSes, all without any reliance on hardware-provided isolation.
Theseus is a safe-language OS, in which everything runs in a single address space (SAS) and single privilege level (SPL). This includes everything from low-level kernel components to higher-level OS services, drivers, libraries, and more, all the way up to user applications. Protection and isolation are provided by means of compiler and language-ensured type safety and memory safety.
https://www.theseus-os.com/Theseus/book/design/design.html https://www.theseus-os.com/Theseus/book/design/design.html
- yencabulator 3y agoYes, but Theseus doesn't run arbitrary binaries.
- Aerbil313 3y agoIt got Wasm support recently, and extending this idea of emulators/interpreters, it can run any arbitrary binary in the future.
- vacuity 3y agoWouldn't that be somewhat outside of Theseus' design and add overhead more akin to modern OSes? Theseus relies on Rust's type system (ownership/borrowing and otherwise) to ensure that all binaries have many verified properties; arbitrary WASM program can't hook into that, yes?
- Aerbil313 3y agoThe vast majority of programs running on a user's computer today are already running in a VM (JS and WASM), and the number is only increasing. I do not know of any argument in behalf of running everything in a VM (even when it's not a requirement) from a cybersecurity perspective, but I suspect there may be one. You're right, but maybe this is the way to go and the tradeoff to accept. After all, the ideas behind Theseus feel so obviously correct, alike to those of Nix.