High-Speed Linux Application Execution in the Browser with Binary Translation

The presentation of elfconv at FOSDEM'26

Transcript

1. © NTT, Inc. 2026 High-Speed Linux Application Execution in the Browser with Binary Translation Masashi Yoshimura / NTT, Inc January 31, 2026
2. 1 © NTT, Inc. 2026 1. Modern browsers are becoming increasingly powerful › Increasingly powerful execution environments › Used for games, 3D rendering, video, and LLMs 2. Can any program run? › No, it’s very difficult. » To ensure security and portability » Direct access to OS or device resources is restricted The Browser as a Computing Platform web-llm
3. 2 © NTT, Inc. 2026 1. Run powerful native applications directly in the browser › e.g., postgres-wasm, ffmpeg.wasm, Libreoffice in the browser What if we could run any native app in the browser? Native–browser convergence combines native performance with web-level portability and security.
4. 3 © NTT, Inc. 2026 1. v86 : x86 PC emulator and x86-to-wasm JIT, in the browser › repo : https://github.com/copy/v86 › can run several 32 bit x86 Oses (Linux, FreeBSD, etc.) in the browser › performance that is tens of times slower 2. container2wasm : Container to WASM converter › repo : https://github.com/container2wasm/container2wasm › can run 64bit Linux and Linux containers in the browser › performance that is tens of times slower Existing Projects Porting a CPU emulator results in significant performance degradation.
5. 4 © NTT, Inc. 2026 Machine Code → LLVM IR https://github.com/lifting-bits/remill • elfconv : AOT binary translator of Linux apps → WebAssembly › repo : https://github.com/yomaytk/elfconv › Linux/ELF/AArch64 → Wasm is supported now elfconv Linux app LLVM bitcode Architecture overview Runtime (C++) memory management system calls API, etc. with
6. 5 © NTT, Inc. 2026 Demo Introduction (GNU Bash + BusyBox + CPython in the browser) link: https://yomaytk.github.io/elfconv-demo/
7. 6 © NTT, Inc. 2026 Benchmark Test Benchmark source (C) Benchmark source (C) Linux app Benchmark source (C) Linux app 1. 2. 3.
8. 7 © NTT, Inc. 2026 Benchmark Test 4.2 2.0 59.5 98.6 56.4 Higher is better Test 1. Prime Nums Test 2. mnist-NN Test 3. LINPACK 100 100 100 1.2
9. 8 © NTT, Inc. 2026 • Linux system calls emulation must have been implemented › CPU-emulator–based projects can use the Linux kernel as-is. › Most difficult parts of elfconv • Many system calls are sufficient to call the library function of emscripten › e.g., openat, read, write, unlinkat, truncate, ... • Some system calls implementation is not trivial. › e.g., fork, execve, socket, ... Linux system calls emulation
10. 9 © NTT, Inc. 2026 • Linux system calls emulation must have been implemented › CPU-emulator–based projects can use the Linux kernel as-is. › Most difficult parts of elfconv • Many system calls are sufficient to call the library function of emscripten › e.g., openat, read, write, unlinkat, truncate, ... • Some system calls implementation is not trivial. › e.g., fork, execve, socket, ... Linux system calls emulation
11. 10 © NTT, Inc. 2026 Multi processes appA.wasm worker A1 (appA.wasm + appA.js) Worker pool ... Browser Linux Apps appA appB appA.js appB.wasm appB.js File System /usr/bin/appA /usr/bin/appB ... System calls emulation process management js-kernel
12. 11 © NTT, Inc. 2026 Multi processes appA.wasm worker A1 (appA.wasm + appA.js) Worker pool ... Browser Linux Apps appA appB appA.js appB.wasm appB.js File System /usr/bin/appA /usr/bin/appB ... System calls emulation process management js-kernel worker A2 (appA.wasm + appA.js) process state fork
13. 12 © NTT, Inc. 2026 Multi processes appA.wasm worker A1 (appA.wasm + appA.js) Worker pool ... Browser Linux Apps appA appB appA.js appB.wasm appB.js File System /usr/bin/appA /usr/bin/appB ... System calls emulation process management js-kernel execve worker B1 (appB.wasm + appB.js) worker A2 (appA.wasm + appA.js)
14. 13 © NTT, Inc. 2026 Multi processes appA.wasm worker A1 (appA.wasm + appA.js) Worker pool ... Browser Linux Apps appA appB appA.js appB.wasm appB.js File System /usr/bin/appA /usr/bin/appB ... System calls emulation process management js-kernel worker B1 (appB.wasm + appB.js) worker A2 (appA.wasm + appA.js)
15. 14 © NTT, Inc. 2026 1. Overall feature enhancement › additional Linux syscall emulation › convert the Linux shared objects (.so) » only statically linked ELF binary is supported now › additional machine code conversion (especially x86-64) 1. Porting more tools › enhance python environment, porting CRuby, ... › Do you have any ideas? 😀 Future Work Any issues or PRs are welcome! Repo: https://github.com/yomaytk/elfconv
16. 15 © NTT, Inc. 2026 Appendix
17. 16 © NTT, Inc. 2026 What LLVM IR is generated? NPW
    Y
    Y C
    Y BEE
    Y
    Y
    Y NPW!
    
    
    
    WY
    
    
    MPBE
    4UBUFY
    
    
    
    TUPSF
    
    WY
    
    4UBUFY C!
    DBMM
    GVOD@Y  BEE!
    
    
    
    WY
    
    
    
    MPBE
    4UBUFY
    
    
    
    WY
    
    
    
    MPBE
    4UBUFY
    
    
    
    WY
    
    
    
    BEE
    
    WY
    WY
    
    
    
    TUPSF
    WY
    
    4UBUFY 0x400200 0x400204 0x400208 VMA $16
    4UBUF Machine Code (ARM64) LLVM IR by Remill struct State { SIMD simd; // 512 bytes GPR gpr; // 518 bytes uint64_t NZCV; ... }; library of Machine Code → LLVM IR