An Open Source Project To Enable Linux in Safety Critical Applications

### Overview At the Open Source Summit in Dublin, Gabriele Paoloni, Chairman of the ELISA Governing Board, discussed the mission, evolution, and technical focus of the ELISA project. ELISA stands for Enabling Linux in Safety-Critical Applications. Initiated in early 2019, the project is designed to help third-party integrators incorporate Linux into safety-critical systems—defined as environments where a fault could lead to hazards causing physical harm or loss of human life—and ultimately support safety claims made by those third parties.

### Key Topics - **Project Scope and Safety vs. Security:** Paoloni clarified the critical distinction between safety and security. Safety is oriented toward reducing the risk of a hazard to an acceptable degree (rather than absolute elimination), concentrating primarily on random faults and bugs without malicious intent. Security, by contrast, focuses on addressing malicious actions and exploits. While both domains may utilize common techniques and tooling, they require distinct perspectives; what is deemed acceptable for security may not suffice for safety, and vice versa. - **Industry Domains and Use Cases:** While initially focused solely on the medical domain, the project expanded to automotive and is moving into avionics. In the medical domain, ELISA investigates the OpenAPS use case (an artificial pancreas system controller for diabetes). In automotive, work has focused on the Telltale use case and supporting autonomous driving applications. Following Boeing joining as a premium member, an avionics working group was also proposed. - **Project Scope and Boundaries:** Paoloni clarified that ELISA itself does not produce a safety-certified Linux distribution, nor does it make formal safety claims on its tools or documentation. Instead, it provides the essential ingredients, analysis, methods, and technical tools for third-party integrators to construct their own safety claims.

### Technical Details - **Working Groups:** Since late 2019, ELISA has established multiple dedicated working groups, including the Automotive Working Group, the Safety Architecture Working Group, the Open Source Development Process (OSCP) Working Group, and the Linux for Safety-Critical Features Working Group. - **Architecture and Kernel Analysis:** Paoloni highlighted his direct involvement in leading the Safety Architecture Working Group. Technical efforts involve building tools that map and provide an architectural view of Linux kernel internals, drivers, and subsystems. The group performs safety analysis to pinpoint critical subparts of the kernel required to support specific safety applications defined by domain working groups. - **Commercial Application:** Members leverage ELISA deliverables in their own products; for instance, Red Hat applies this work toward its in-vehicle operating system distribution.

### Takeaways Since its inception in 2019, ELISA has expanded its membership to over 20 active members (including BMW, Toyota, Intel, Mobileye, Boeing, Arm, and Red Hat), broadened from a single medical use case to automotive and avionics domains, and developed targeted kernel analysis tooling. The project provides technical foundations, architectural methodologies, and risk-reduction techniques to empower industry integrators to safely deploy Linux across varied safety-critical sectors.