A kernel framework of hook points at every security-relevant decision, where a pluggable module answers allow or deny.

linux · open source

A Linux facility that filters which syscalls a process may make, expressed as a BPF (Berkeley Packet Filter) program over the syscall number and scalar arguments.

linux · open source

The first unprivileged, self-imposed Linux Security Module (LSM): a process sandboxes itself with access rules over real kernel objects.

linux · open source

The kernel feature that gives a process a private view of a global resource, mounts, PIDs, network, users, the building block of containers.

linux · open source

The kernel mechanism that meters and limits a group of processes' CPU, memory, I/O, and PIDs.

linux · open source

The kernel's split of root's monolithic power into ~40 discrete privileges that can be granted or dropped individually.

linux · open source

The union filesystem container engines use by default for images: read-only layers stacked under one writable layer, with copy-on-write.

linux · open source

A path-based Linux Security Module where an administrator writes per-application profiles enforced system-wide.

linux · open source

A label-based Linux Security Module enforcing a comprehensive, system-wide mandatory access policy.

linux · open source

macOS's built-in process sandbox, driven by SBPL profiles via sandbox-exec / sandbox_init.

macos

An unprivileged sandboxing tool that confines a process by building it a private mount-namespace filesystem view.

sandbox-library · linux · open source

Anthropic's standalone process-sandbox library, Seatbelt on macOS, bubblewrap + seccomp on Linux, behind one interface with an egress proxy.

sandbox-library · linux · macos · open source

A cross-platform agent sandbox using Landlock + seccomp on Linux and Seatbelt on macOS, with an L7 credential-injecting egress proxy.

sandbox-library · linux · macos · open source

The ubiquitous container runtime, namespaces + cgroups + a default seccomp/AppArmor profile, that shares the host kernel.

container-engine · linux · macos · windows · open source

A daemonless, rootless-friendly container engine, drop-in compatible with Docker's CLI.

container

default, a standard container; `--runtime krun` runs each container in a libkrun microVM (the Podman + krun entry)

container-engine · linux · macos · open source

The core container runtime that manages the container lifecycle beneath Docker and Kubernetes.

container-engine · linux · open source

The standard OCI runtime: the low-level executor that assembles namespaces, cgroups, and seccomp into a running container.

oci-runtime · linux · open source

A fast, low-memory OCI runtime written in C, the default executor under Podman.

oci-runtime · linux · open source

A system-container and VM manager (LXC/LXD lineage) with one CLI for both, the low-friction Linux isolation choice.

container

default, `incus launch` runs a shared-kernel LXC system container

vm

`incus launch --vm` runs a full KVM/QEMU virtual machine with its own kernel, same CLI, no new tooling

container-engine · linux · open source

Google's userspace kernel that intercepts a container's syscalls, shrinking host-kernel attack surface without a VM.

oci-runtime · linux · open source

A container runtime giving user-namespace isolation and Docker-in-Docker without --privileged, hardened, still shared-kernel.

container

an OCI runtime: engines run containers through it (sysbox-runc)

hardened-system

its purpose: user namespaces, procfs/sysfs virtualization, and Docker-in-Docker without --privileged harden the container

oci-runtime · linux · open source

The Linux kernel's built-in hypervisor, turning the kernel into a type-1 hypervisor using CPU virtualization extensions.

hypervisor · linux · open source

Apple's low-level hypervisor API, the macOS equivalent of KVM, exposing hardware virtualization to userspace VMMs.

hypervisor · macos

Microsoft's hypervisor API exposing Hyper-V's hardware virtualization to third-party userspace VMMs, the Windows KVM analog.

hypervisor · windows

Apple's high-level VM API on top of Hypervisor.framework, the modern way to run Linux VMs on Apple Silicon.

hypervisor · macos

AWS's minimal virtual machine monitor that boots a microVM with its own kernel in ~125ms, built for running untrusted multi-tenant code.

microvm

its home tier: each guest gets its own kernel behind the hardware boundary

hardened-system

also a hardened system: the VMM filters its own access to the host kernel, a seccomp allowlist on the vCPU threads plus the jailer's privilege drop

vmm · linux · open source

A Rust VMM on KVM, more featureful than Firecracker, that confines itself with Landlock as its second wall.

microvm

its home tier: each guest gets its own kernel behind the hardware boundary

hardened-system

also a hardened system, to the extent you switch it on: the VMM can confine its own access to the host with Landlock

vmm · linux · open source

The veteran, feature-complete machine emulator and VMM, full device model, full cross-architecture emulation.

vm

default, full emulated machine

microvm

with -machine microvm (the minimal microVM type)

vmm · linux · macos · open source

An embeddable, in-process VMM exposed as a C library, the microVM engine under krunvm, Podman+krun, smolvm, and microsandbox.

vmm · linux · macos · windows · open source

Cognition's homegrown microVM hypervisor behind Devin, paired with a blockdiff snapshot format for fast fork/rollback.

vmm · cloud

An OCI/Kubernetes runtime that transparently runs each container inside its own lightweight VM (Firecracker/Cloud Hypervisor/QEMU).

microvm-tool · linux · open source

A CLI that creates and runs microVMs from OCI images using libkrun.

microvm-tool · linux · macos · open source

Podman with the krun runtime, run an OCI container as a microVM with the familiar podman CLI.

microvm

this is `podman run --runtime krun`; plain Podman runs a shared-kernel container

microvm-tool · linux · macos · open source

A cross-platform CLI that runs OCI images as libkrun microVMs with secure defaults, network off, mounts opt-in, packable into portable .smolmachine files.

microvm

its home tier: each guest gets its own kernel behind the hardware boundary

hardened-system

partially hardened: seccomp, Landlock, and per-VM uid drop confine the VMM, but only fully in the privileged serve path

microvm-tool · linux · macos · windows · open source

A self-hostable microVM sandbox that boots OCI images in ~100ms via libkrun, with a careful filesystem-passthrough and egress model.

microvm

its home tier: each sandbox is a libkrun microVM with its own guest kernel

microvm-tool · linux · macos · open source

Apple's first-party tool that runs each OCI container inside its own lightweight VM on Virtualization.framework.

microvm-tool · macos · open source

Canonical's tool for spinning up Ubuntu VMs with a single command, on KVM (Linux) or HVF (macOS).

vm-tool · linux · macos · open source

Linux VMs on macOS with automatic file sharing and port forwarding, the engine under Colima.

vm-tool · macos · open source

A macOS container runtime that boots a Docker/containerd host inside a Lima Linux VM, a free Docker Desktop alternative.

vm-tool · macos · open source

A fast, proprietary macOS app for running Docker containers and Linux machines on Virtualization.framework.

vm-tool · macos

A GUI VM app for macOS, running guests on Virtualization.framework (fast) or QEMU (any architecture).

vm-tool · macos · open source

A CI-focused macOS/Linux VM tool on Virtualization.framework, with OCI-registry distribution of VM images.

vm-tool · macos

A self-hosted microVM sandbox for agent code execution on Cloud Hypervisor, notable for snapshot-and-backtrack and for a badly stale engine pin.

microvm

its home tier: each sandbox is a Cloud Hypervisor microVM with its own guest kernel, with overlayfs protecting the root filesystem

microvm-tool · linux · open source

A sandbox platform that runs code in Firecracker microVMs, with per-sandbox network isolation, self-hostable or hosted.

cloud-platform · cloud · open source

A serverless compute platform that isolates workloads with gVisor, stronger than runc, weaker than a hardware VM.

container

each sandbox runs a container image on Modal's infrastructure

hardened-system

every container runs under gVisor's userspace kernel

cloud-platform · cloud

A dev-environment sandbox platform whose self-hosted default was measured as a privileged runc container, despite 'dedicated kernel' marketing.

container

the measured self-hosted default: a runc container via Docker-CE, launched with Privileged:true, which switches off Docker's seccomp profile, AppArmor, and user-namespace isolation

microvm

a vendor-documented optional Kata/Linux-VM runtime, each sandbox getting its own guest kernel behind a hardware boundary; not covered by the June 2026 measurement

cloud-platform · cloud

A cloud platform that gives AI agents full Linux VMs, provisioned in under a second with live forking and pause/resume.

vm

its home tier: each workload is a full Linux VM with its own kernel

cloud-platform · cloud

A Docker container as your whole dev environment, real reproducibility and process separation, but a convenience boundary, not a hard one.

dev-environment · linux · macos · windows · open source

A dev container inside a dedicated per-codespace VM, the real VM boundary that local dev containers lack.

dev-environment · cloud