Prototype: Content on this page reflects current design intent and will be updated as the product matures.
Overview: When you run a program, the OS grants it every file you can reach. A word processor and ransomware running as the same user have the same access.
HeartSuite Joint File System (HJFS) stops a program from inheriting everything you can reach: each program gets only its own files, isolated per program and per version, including programs running as root.
The root cause
Operating systems grant file permissions to users, not to programs, and that is still the default. As a result, a word processor and a ransomware process running as the same user have identical access to every file that user owns.
Ransomware opens your files using the same system call as any legitimate program, reads them, encrypts them, and overwrites the originals. Backup can only restore a snapshot taken before the damage, and detection reacts after access was already granted, and only to attacks it already recognizes.
What HJFS changes
HJFS replaces user-based file permissions with program-based file permissions, enforced inside the filesystem. Each program has its own storage area. No other program can read or write those files, including programs running as root.
Which programs run and which network connections they open stay with Root Lock by HeartSuite. On a Root Lock kernel, HJFS and Root Lock can share the host. See Protection limits.