Show HN: Sandboxing untrusted code using WebAssembly
48 points - today at 2:28 PM
Hi everyone,
I built a runtime to isolate untrusted code using wasm sandboxes.
Basically, it protects your host system from problems that untrusted code can cause. Weβve had a great discussion about sandboxing in Python lately that elaborates a bit more on the problem [1]. In TypeScript, wasm integration is even more natural thanks to the close proximity between both ecosystems.
The core is built in Rust. On top of that, I use WASI 0.2 via wasmtime and the component model, along with custom SDKs that keep things as idiomatic as possible.
For example, in Python we have a simple decorator:
from capsule import task
@task(
name="analyze_data",
compute="MEDIUM",
ram="512mb",
allowed_files=["./authorized-folder/"],
timeout="30s",
max_retries=1
)
def analyze_data(dataset: list) -> dict:
"""Process data in an isolated, resource-controlled environment."""
# Your code runs safely in a Wasm sandbox
return {"processed": len(dataset), "status": "complete"}
And in TypeScript we have a wrapper: import { task } from "@capsule-run/sdk"
export const analyze = task({
name: "analyzeData",
compute: "MEDIUM",
ram: "512mb",
allowedFiles: ["./authorized-folder/"],
timeout: 30000,
maxRetries: 1
}, (dataset: number[]) => {
return {processed: dataset.length, status: "complete"}
});
You can set CPU (with compute), memory, filesystem access, and retries to keep precise control over your tasks.It's still quite early, but I'd love feedback. Iβll be around to answer questions.
Comments
That being said this is useful even if it wasn't for the running AI agent code aspect, being able to limit ram and cpu usage and time outs makes it easier to run coding based games/applications safely (like battle snakes and Leetcode)
At that point it might be just easier to convince the model to write JS directly
componentize-py β Python to WebAssembly Component compilation
+
jco β JavaScript toolchain for WebAssembly Components
I'm curious how Wasi 0.3 cross language components will go for something like this.
I'd find this a lot easier to trust it if had the Python code that runs in WASM as an entirely separate Python file, then it would be very clear to me which bits of code run in WASM.