Attention

Qubes OS 4.2 has reached end of life - it is no longer supported and thus will no longer receive security updates, bug fixes, or new features. We recommend to perform an in-place upgrade or perform a clean installation of Qubes 4.3! The documentation of version 4.2 will also not receive any new updates, unless bug fixes. Its state is thus archived.

Research

Here are links to various research papers, projects, videos, and blog posts related to Qubes OS.

Secure Software Development

Security challenges for the Qubes build process by Joanna Rutkowska, May 2016

Towards Trusted Hardware

Thoughts on the “physically secure” ORWL computer by Joanna Rutkowska, September 2016
State considered harmful by Joanna Rutkowska, December 2015
Intel x86 considered harmful by Joanna Rutkowska, October 2015

Intel’s Safeguard Extensions

Thoughts on Intel’s upcoming SoftwareGuard Extensions (Part 2) by Joanna Rutkowska, September 2013
Thoughts on Intel’s upcoming SoftwareGuard Extensions (Part 1) by Joanna Rutkowska, August 2013

Attacks on Intel TXT

Attacking Intel TXT® via SINIT code execution hijacking by Rafal Wojtczuk and Joanna Rutkowska, November 2011
Another Way to Circumvent Intel® Trusted Execution Technology by Rafal Wojtczuk, Joanna Rutkowska, Alex Tereshkin, December 2009
ACPI: Design Principles and Concerns by Loic Duflot, Olivier Levillain, and Benjamin Morin, 2009
Attacking Intel® Trusted Execution Technology by Rafal Wojtczuk and Joanna Rutkowska

Software Attacks Coming Through Devices

Following the White Rabbit: Software Attacks against Intel® VT-d by Rafal Wojtczuk and Joanna Rutkowska, April 2011
On Formally Verified Microkernels (and on attacking them) by Joanna Rutkowska, May 2010
Remotely Attacking Network Cards (or why we do need VT-d and TXT) by Joanna Rutkowska, April 2010
Can you still trust your network card? by Loïc Duflot, Yves-Alexis Perez and others

Application-level Security

Virtics: A System for Privilege Separation of Legacy Desktop Applications by Matt Piotrowski, May 2010

Compartmentalization, Isolation, and Separation

Software compartmentalization vs. physical separation by Joanna Rutkowska, August 2014
Breaking Up is Hard to Do: Security and Functionality in a Commodity Hypervisor by Patrick Colp at el., October 2011

The Qubes Architecture

Qubes virtual mini-summit 2021 by 3mdeb and the Qubes team, August 2021
Qubes Air: Generalizing the Qubes Architecture by Joanna Rutkowska, January 2018
Introducing the Next Generation Qubes Core Stack by Joanna Rutkowska, October 2017
Introducing the Qubes Admin API by Joanna Rutkowska, June 2017
Qubes OS Architecture Spec v0.3 by Joanna Rutkowska and Rafal Wojtczuk, January 2010