The Qubes operating system is currently in the alpha stage, according to Rutkowska, who blogged about the release on her website. The system is based on the Xen hypervisor, X, and Linux, and can run most Linux applications, according to the project website. It uses a concept that she calls security by isolation, allowing users to separate security domains into lightweight virtual machines, which she calls AppVMs. Files and clipboard items can be shared between the virtual machines (VMs).
The system also virtualizes the graphical user interface, enabling applications in different AppVMs to share the same desktop, according to the project website. "We have designed the GUI virtualization subsystem with two primary goals: security and performance. Our GUI infrastructure introduces only about 2,500 lines of C code (LOC) into the privileged domain (Dom0), which is very little, and thus leaves not much space for bugs and potential attacks," noted the project website. "At the same time, due to smart use of Xen shared memory our GUI implementation is very efficient, so most virtualized applications really feel as if they were executed natively."
The link for this article located at infosecurity is no longer available.
