A secure, fast, and general-purpose OS kernel written in Rust and compatible with Linux

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News:

• 2025-12-08: FAST 2026 accepted a paper on a novel secure storage solution having been integrated into Asterinas: MlsDisk: Trusted Block Storage for TEEs Based on Layered Secure Logging.
• 2025-10-17: ICSE 2026 accepted yet another paper about Asterinas: RusyFuzz: Unhandled Exception Guided Fuzzing for Rust OS Kernel.
• 2025-10-14: CortenMM: Efficient Memory Management with Strong Correctness Guarantees received the Best Paper Award at SOSP 2025.
• 2025-07-23: SOSP 2025 accepted another Asterinas paper: CortenMM: Efficient Memory Management with Strong Correctness Guarantees.
• 2025-06-18: USENIX ;login: magazine published Asterinas: A Rust-Based Framekernel to Reimagine Linux in the 2020s.
• 2025-04-30: USENIX ATC 2025 accepted two Asterinas papers:
  1. Asterinas: A Linux ABI-Compatible, Rust-Based Framekernel OS with a Small and Sound TCB;
  2. Converos: Practical Model Checking for Verifying Rust OS Kernel Concurrency.

Congratulations to the Asterinas community🎉🎉🎉

Introducing Asterinas

Asterinas is a secure, fast, and general-purpose OS kernel that provides Linux-compatible ABI. It can serve as a seamless replacement for Linux while enhancing memory safety and developer friendliness.

• Asterinas prioritizes memory safety by employing Rust as its sole programming language and limiting the use of unsafe Rust to a clearly defined and minimal Trusted Computing Base (TCB). This innovative approach, known as the framekernel architecture, establishes Asterinas as a more secure and dependable kernel option.

• Asterinas surpasses Linux in terms of developer friendliness. It empowers kernel developers to (1) utilize the more productive Rust programming language, (2) leverage a purpose-built toolkit called OSDK to streamline their workflows, and (3) choose between releasing their kernel modules as open source or keeping them proprietary, thanks to the flexibility offered by MPL.

While the journey towards a production-grade OS kernel is challenging, we are steadfastly progressing towards this goal. Over the course of 2024, we significantly enhanced Asterinas's maturity, as detailed in our end-year report. In December 2025, we launched Asterinas NixOS, an Asterinas distribution based on NixOS. This release marks Asterinas reaching the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) milestone. In 2026, we aim to make Asterinas production-ready on x86-64 virtual machines and attract real users.

Getting Started

For End Users

We provide Asterinas NixOS ISO Installer to make the Asterinas kernel more accessible for early adopters and enthusiasts. We encourage you to try out Asterinas NixOS and share feedback. Instructions on how to use the ISO installer can be found here.

For Kernel Developers

Follow the steps below to get Asterinas up and running.

1. Download the latest source code on an x86-64 Linux machine:

git clone https://github.com/asterinas/asterinas

2. Run a Docker container as the development environment:

docker run -it --privileged --network=host -v /dev:/dev -v $(pwd)/asterinas:/root/asterinas asterinas/asterinas:0.16.2-20251211

3. Inside the container, go to the project folder (/root/asterinas) and run:

make kernel
make run_kernel

This results in a VM running the Asterinas kernel with a small initramfs.

4. To install and test real-world applications on Asterinas, build and run Asterinas NixOS in a VM:

make nixos
make run_nixos

This boots into an interactive shell in Asterinas NixOS, where you can use Nix to install and try more packages.

The Book

See The Asterinas Book to learn more about the project.

License

Asterinas's source code and documentation primarily use the Mozilla Public License (MPL), Version 2.0. Select components are under more permissive licenses, detailed here. For the rationales behind the choice of MPL, see here.