LiteBox is presented as a security-focused library operating system designed to drastically reduce the attack surface for applications by minimizing their direct interface with the host system. Its core methodology revolves around an adaptable architecture composed of distinct "North" and "South" interfaces, facilitating broad interoperability across diverse execution environments.

The "North" interface, which applications interact with, is presented as a Rust-native, nix/rustix-inspired API. This standardized interface aims to provide a consistent application programming model, regardless of the underlying host. Conversely, the "South" interface is a Platform abstraction that allows LiteBox to connect to various host environments, encompassing both kernel and non-kernel scenarios. The design emphasizes seamless interoperation between different "North" shims (the application's view) and "South" platforms (the host's capabilities), effectively acting as a mediator that translates application requests into host-specific operations with a significantly reduced privilege and interface surface.

This architectural pattern enables a variety of use cases, including:

• Cross-platform execution: Running unmodified Linux programs on a Windows host.
• Containerized sandboxing: Isolating Linux applications within a Linux environment.
• Confidential computing: Executing programs atop hardware-assisted trusted execution environments like AMD Secure Encrypted Virtualization-Secure Nested Paging (SEV-SNP).
• TEE integration: Running OP-TEE (Open Portable Trusted Execution Environment) programs on a Linux host.
• Specialized platforms: Operation on environments such as LVBS (likely a specific virtualized or bare-metal platform).

The project is described as actively evolving, with ongoing API and interface refinements, indicating a current focus on development rather than stable release. LiteBox is licensed under the MIT License.