Google Launches KataOS, An Open-Source Operating System for Software Security

Last week, Google announced the launch of an operating system called ‘KataOS’. This new OS is written entirely in Rust, and is aimed towards building software security and protecting user data in embedded systems using ML applications. The feature of Rust to eliminate entire classes of bugs is a strong starting point for making KataOS a secure operating system. 

In addition to this, Google has announced its partnership with Antmicro on Renode simulator and related frameworks for testing the ongoing work. 

About KataOS

Google claims that KataOS provides a verifiably-secure platform that protects the user’s privacy because it is logically impossible for applications to breach the kernel’s hardware security protections and the system components are also verifiably secure.

Under Project Sparrow, Google has open-sourced several components of their hardware and software platform in an attempt to build a secure, embedded platform for intelligent systems. 

Check out the project on GitHub. 

While KataOS forms the software component, the secured hardware design includes the root of trust built with OpenTitan on a RISC-V architecture. However, for now, they’re targeting a more standard 64-bit ARM platform running in simulation with QEMU.