Linux

Linux is a free, open-source kernel that serves as the core foundation for a wide variety of operating systems used on everything from servers to smartphones. The CHERI forks enhance this foundation by replacing traditional pointers with hardware-enforced capabilities, providing fine-grained memory safety and compartmentalisation.

Project Home: https://github.com/CHERI-Alliance/linux/

Downloads & Documentation

Fork VersionBased on Upstream VersionTargetReference SpecDownloadDocumentation
codasip-cheri-riscv
2026-01-26		6.18
2025-11-30		riscv64cCHERI RISC-V Draft 0.9.3Source
morello/master
2025-10-22		6.7
2024-01-07		aarch64, aarch64cARM MorelloSourceDocumentation

Fork VersionBased on Upstream VersionTargetReference SpecDownload
morello/linux-release-1.8.1
2024-04-26		6.7
2024-01-07		aarch64, aarch64cARM MorelloSource
Please note that there are no build artifacts, please see instructions for building from source.

Project Status

Towards the end of 2025, RISC-V support for CHERI Linux by Codasip was open-sourced and published via CHERI-Alliance/linux repo. These patches are based on the upstream Linux Kernel, and the CHERI modifications made by the ARM Morello project.

The CHERI-enabled RISC-V kernel uses the CHERI enabled purecap UABI and the kernel itself also runs in capability mode. Support for legacy non-CHERI aware userspace programs is currently incomplete (some driver ioctls are still missing), but running some unmodified binaries is possible as of 6.18.

The code is under continued active development and the history is not guaranteed. Please expect rebases and history re-writes.

Building from Source

For instructions on building the RISC-V CHERI-Linux from source, check out our blog post on Getting started with CHERI Linux on RISC-V

For Morello, see the morello-project.org documentation on how to get started.

Get Involved

Development for this project happens in the following places:

Support for CHERI Linux is provided via the CHERI CPU Slack.

  • #cheri-linux: The main channel for linux

The CHERI Alliance Linux working group hold regular meetings

Something missing, incorrect?

This page was last updated on 27th January 2026. Please let us know of any corrections via support@thecapablehub.org, alternatively raise a GitHub pull request in our repo.