Genode OS Framework release 20.05 May 28, 2020

Version 20.05 wraps up the consolidation of Noux with the C runtime, advances the device-driver infrastructure and virtualization support on ARM, reaches feature-completion of our block encryptor, and leverages seccomp for sandboxing components on top of Linux.

It has become almost a tradition to dedicate the spring release to topics under the hood of the Genode OS framework, taking the time for careful consolidation, and architectural improvements.

On the latter account, the Linux version gained an architectural revamp of its inter-component communication model, leveraging the combination of the seccomp and epoll kernel mechanisms to enable Genode's capability-based security concept on this kernel. The new version applies strict sandboxing to each component individually. In particular, the host file system is shielded from Genode components and Genode's least-privilege access-control scheme comes into effect.

As the second prominent architectural topic, the release features new device-driver infrastructure for the ARM universe along with a unified version of the formerly distinct virtual machine monitors for ARMv7 and ARMv8. These are important steps to bring Genode on ARM to parity with the x86 version.

Further highlights of the release are the first feature-complete version of our custom block-encryption component, the improved management of CPU affinities on x86, and new tracing utilities. Last but not least, the release is accompanied with an updated version of the Genode Foundations book, reflecting the changes of the framework since one year ago.

Read the details of the new release in the release documentation of version 20.05...