chore: prepare release v0.18.0

[danbugs]

Bump workspace version from 0.17.0 to 0.18.0 and update CHANGELOG with all changes since v0.17.0. Key changes this release:

• Windows on ARM64 support via the WHP backend
• Virtqueue-based host-guest communication, replacing legacy stack I/O (breaking; existing snapshots must be regenerated)
• Retained guest buffers preserved across snapshot capture/restore, and host calls rejected during snapshot checkpoints
• MultiUseSandbox renamed to Sandbox (old name kept as a deprecated alias)
• Architecture-independent guest exception hooks, deprecating hyperlight_guest_bin::exception::arch
• Namespaced application metadata on snapshots

[Copilot]

🟡 Changes recommended

A post-v0.17.0 fix remains attributed to the v0.17.0 changelog instead of this release.

1 open finding

• Move PR #1699 guest log-level fix to v0.18.0 notes · New

What changed in this PR

Prepares Hyperlight v0.18.0 by updating crate versions and release notes.

Changes:

• Bumps workspace crates to 0.18.0.
• Adds v0.18.0 changelog entries and comparison links.
• Regenerates workspace lockfiles.

File	Description
Cargo.toml	Updates workspace and dependency versions.
Cargo.lock	Records updated workspace crate versions.
src/​tests/​rust_guests/​Cargo.lock	Updates nested guest workspace versions.
CHANGELOG.md	Adds v0.18.0 release notes and links.

🧠 Review effort: Balanced

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[hyperlight-gh-bot]

Benchmark Results

Measured commit: c3307d0c8f2c
Baseline commit: ad05110e17bf

kvm / amd (Linux) (➖ stable)

No benchmark improved or regressed.

Benchmark Results

function_call_codec

	encode_control	decode_vec_bytes_copy
byte_chunks	750.24 ns (➖ 1.00x slower)
vec_bytes	603.53 ns (➖ 1.01x slower)
		372.91 µs (➖ 1.00x slower)

payload_allocation

	slot_pool_segmented
262144	521.90 ns (➖ 1.00x faster)
65536	141.85 ns (➖ 1.01x faster)

sandboxes

	create_initialized_and_drop
medium	81.25 ms (➖ 1.02x faster)

slot_pool

	alloc_dealloc_1500	alloc_dealloc_4096	alloc_dealloc_128
	7.72 ns (➖ 1.00x faster)	7.72 ns (➖ 1.00x faster)	7.72 ns (➖ 1.00x slower)

snapshot_files

	load_snapshot_unverified
small	93.30 µs (➖ 1.00x faster)

virtq_readonly

	slot_pool_segmented_fragmented	slot_pool_segmented
262144	7.07 µs (➖ 1.00x faster)	7.28 µs (➖ 1.02x slower)
65536	2.12 µs (➖ 1.09x slower)	1.97 µs (➖ 1.07x faster)

virtq_readwrite

	slot_pool_segmented_fragmented	slot_pool_segmented
65536	6.23 µs (➖ 1.06x faster)	6.21 µs (➖ 1.03x faster)
8192	1.15 µs (➖ 1.02x slower)	1.07 µs (➖ 1.03x faster)
262144		27.39 µs (➖ 1.02x faster)

kvm / intel (Linux) (➖ stable)

No benchmark improved or regressed.

Benchmark Results

function_call_codec

	encode_control	decode_vec_bytes_copy
byte_chunks	669.23 ns (➖ 1.01x slower)
vec_bytes	499.72 ns (➖ 1.03x faster)
		657.06 µs (➖ 1.00x faster)

payload_allocation

	slot_pool_segmented
262144	493.23 ns (➖ 1.08x faster)
65536	133.91 ns (➖ 1.01x faster)

sandboxes

	create_initialized_and_drop
medium	73.39 ms (➖ 1.00x faster)

slot_pool

	alloc_dealloc_1500	alloc_dealloc_4096	alloc_dealloc_128
	6.86 ns (➖ 1.00x faster)	6.88 ns (➖ 1.00x faster)	6.95 ns (➖ 1.01x slower)

snapshot_files

	load_snapshot_unverified
small	44.52 µs (➖ 1.02x faster)

virtq_readonly

	slot_pool_segmented_fragmented	slot_pool_segmented
262144	7.52 µs (➖ 1.00x slower)	7.50 µs (➖ 1.00x slower)
65536	2.14 µs (➖ 1.00x faster)	2.14 µs (➖ 1.00x slower)

virtq_readwrite

	slot_pool_segmented_fragmented	slot_pool_segmented
65536	7.31 µs (➖ 1.02x slower)	7.16 µs (➖ 1.00x faster)
8192	754.11 ns (➖ 1.02x faster)	788.14 ns (➖ 1.04x slower)
262144		29.97 µs (➖ 1.02x slower)

mshv3 / amd (Linux) (➖ stable)

No benchmark improved or regressed.

Benchmark Results

function_call_codec

	encode_control	decode_vec_bytes_copy
byte_chunks	938.53 ns (➖ 1.00x slower)
vec_bytes	718.11 ns (➖ 1.02x slower)
		358.87 µs (➖ 1.34x slower)

payload_allocation

	slot_pool_segmented
262144	718.27 ns (➖ 1.03x faster)
65536	197.57 ns (➖ 1.04x slower)

sandboxes

	create_initialized_and_drop
medium	57.44 ms (➖ 1.00x slower)

slot_pool

	alloc_dealloc_1500	alloc_dealloc_4096	alloc_dealloc_128
	9.59 ns (➖ 1.02x slower)	9.39 ns (➖ 1.02x faster)	9.43 ns (➖ 1.01x faster)

snapshot_files

	load_snapshot_unverified
small	84.49 µs (➖ 1.01x slower)

virtq_readonly

	slot_pool_segmented_fragmented	slot_pool_segmented
262144	10.00 µs (➖ 1.01x faster)	9.86 µs (➖ 1.01x faster)
65536	2.42 µs (➖ 1.02x faster)	2.23 µs (➖ 1.01x faster)

virtq_readwrite

	slot_pool_segmented_fragmented	slot_pool_segmented
65536	8.34 µs (➖ 1.14x faster)	8.36 µs (➖ 1.18x faster)
8192	1.28 µs (➖ 1.06x faster)	1.35 µs (➖ 1.09x slower)
262144		36.38 µs (➖ 1.06x faster)

mshv3 / intel (Linux) (➖ stable)

No benchmark improved or regressed.

Benchmark Results

function_call_codec

	encode_control	decode_vec_bytes_copy
byte_chunks	913.74 ns (➖ 1.00x slower)
vec_bytes	665.85 ns (➖ 1.02x slower)
		729.03 µs (➖ 1.12x slower)

payload_allocation

	slot_pool_segmented
262144	647.30 ns (➖ 1.02x slower)
65536	173.25 ns (➖ 1.05x slower)

sandboxes

	create_initialized_and_drop
medium	65.16 ms (➖ 1.00x faster)

slot_pool

	alloc_dealloc_1500	alloc_dealloc_4096	alloc_dealloc_128
	9.41 ns (➖ 1.01x faster)	9.71 ns (➖ 1.03x slower)	9.29 ns (➖ 1.01x slower)

snapshot_files

	load_snapshot_unverified
small	45.20 µs (➖ 1.01x slower)

virtq_readonly

	slot_pool_segmented_fragmented	slot_pool_segmented
262144	7.89 µs (➖ 1.01x faster)	7.93 µs (➖ 1.01x slower)
65536	2.25 µs (➖ 1.00x faster)	2.26 µs (➖ 1.01x slower)

virtq_readwrite

	slot_pool_segmented_fragmented	slot_pool_segmented
65536	7.72 µs (➖ 1.03x slower)	7.47 µs (➖ 1.02x faster)
8192	915.97 ns (➖ 1.06x faster)	926.88 ns (➖ 1.01x slower)
262144		37.58 µs (➖ 1.07x faster)

hyperv-ws2025 / amd (Windows) (➖ stable)

No benchmark improved or regressed.

Benchmark Results

function_call_codec

	encode_control	decode_vec_bytes_copy
byte_chunks	1.26 µs (➖ 1.05x slower)
vec_bytes	792.58 ns (➖ 1.04x faster)
		2.13 ms (➖ 1.07x faster)

payload_allocation

	slot_pool_segmented
262144	782.90 ns (➖ 1.04x faster)
65536	255.45 ns (➖ 1.11x slower)

sandboxes

	create_initialized_and_drop
medium	94.99 ms (➖ 1.02x faster)

slot_pool

	alloc_dealloc_1500	alloc_dealloc_4096	alloc_dealloc_128
	10.10 ns (➖ 1.04x faster)	11.41 ns (➖ 1.10x slower)	10.36 ns (➖ 1.01x faster)

snapshot_files

	load_snapshot_unverified
small	859.35 µs (➖ 1.01x slower)

virtq_readonly

	slot_pool_segmented_fragmented	slot_pool_segmented
262144	9.03 µs (➖ 1.02x faster)	9.15 µs (➖ 1.01x faster)
65536	2.33 µs (➖ 1.02x faster)	2.36 µs (➖ 1.02x slower)

virtq_readwrite

	slot_pool_segmented_fragmented	slot_pool_segmented
65536	8.73 µs (➖ 1.05x faster)	8.76 µs (➖ 1.00x faster)
8192	1.35 µs (➖ 1.01x faster)	1.29 µs (➖ 1.01x slower)
262144		39.36 µs (➖ 1.03x slower)

hyperv-ws2025 / intel (Windows) (➖ stable)

No benchmark improved or regressed.

Benchmark Results

function_call_codec

	encode_control	decode_vec_bytes_copy
byte_chunks	1.19 µs (➖ 1.04x faster)
vec_bytes	769.40 ns (➖ 1.02x faster)
		3.05 ms (➖ 1.04x faster)

payload_allocation

	slot_pool_segmented
262144	747.01 ns (➖ 1.01x slower)
65536	209.52 ns (➖ 1.00x slower)

sandboxes

	create_initialized_and_drop
medium	115.00 ms (➖ 1.03x slower)

slot_pool

	alloc_dealloc_1500	alloc_dealloc_4096	alloc_dealloc_128
	10.40 ns (➖ 1.03x faster)	10.05 ns (➖ 1.01x slower)	10.29 ns (➖ 1.04x faster)

snapshot_files

	load_snapshot_unverified
small	810.00 µs (➖ 1.18x slower)

virtq_readonly

	slot_pool_segmented_fragmented	slot_pool_segmented
262144	7.77 µs (➖ 1.01x slower)	8.07 µs (➖ 1.04x slower)
65536	2.38 µs (➖ 1.03x slower)	2.39 µs (➖ 1.02x slower)

virtq_readwrite

	slot_pool_segmented_fragmented	slot_pool_segmented
65536	8.87 µs (➖ 1.02x slower)	8.69 µs (➖ 1.01x slower)
8192	1.15 µs (➖ 1.10x faster)	1.09 µs (➖ 1.00x slower)
262144		42.44 µs (➖ 1.10x faster)

_{Reported by cargo ci bench-report --candidate run:38497763393 --config-file bench_report.toml.}