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Qubes OS: A reasonably secure operating system

(www.qubes-os.org)
441 points ploggingdev | 1 comments | 19 Nov 17 16:06 UTC | HN request time: 0.222s | source
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snvzz ◴[19 Nov 17 17:00 UTC] No.15734641[source]▶
Their weakest point is the hypervisor, Xen, which while a better choice than Linux/KVM, is still extremely bloated and has a poor security history.

Thankfully, better designs such as seL4's VMM do exist, although it might need a little more work [1] until usable for the purpose.

[1] https://sel4.systems/Info/Roadmap/

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dijit ◴[19 Nov 17 17:07 UTC] No.15734676[source]▶
Could you clarify "Better choice"?

I've been using KVM/Xen/VMware for some time and always enjoyed it. And since Amazon and Google especially are going all in on KVM I'm surprised to hear the Xen is a better choice.

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snvzz ◴[19 Nov 17 17:28 UTC] No.15734812[source]▶
>Could you clarify "Better choice"?

KVM is, like VMware, a Type 2 hypervisor. [1]

Xen is a proper Type 1 hypervisor.

[1] https://microkerneldude.wordpress.com/2010/10/14/much-ado-ab...

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1. monocasa ◴[19 Nov 17 22:19 UTC] No.15736268[source]▶
sel4's virtualization support make it a type 2 hypervisor. Akaros too, which IMO has the right model for virtualization with it's 'VM threads' concept. All 'type 2' really means is that the kernel directly supports running threads in ring 3 in addition to ring 0.

I guess it's your use of 'proper' that bugged me.