EC2’s formally verified “isolation engine” provides mathematical assurance of virtual-machine isolation

Jul 10, 2026

Amazon Science reports that splitting the 'separation kernel' from the rest of the Nitro security system and coding it in a subset of Rust enabled formal verification. This provides mathematical assurance of virtual-machine isolation on EC2.

Why it matters: Formal verification of the isolation engine provides mathematical assurance of VM separation, a critical security property for cloud computing.

Full story at: Amazon Science ↗