IronLanguages / IronLanguages/ironpython3

Feature Request: Implement a restricted mode

Open
#1,958 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub

Nobody has claimed this yet.

Dominant language
C#
Stars
2.8k
Forks
316
Avg merge
1d 9h
Merged PRs (30d)
1

Description

I'm interested in using IronPython as a scripting language for my app, as I've done benchmarks on many popular .net scripting solutions and IronPython comes on top - and speed is important for this app. However security is also important. I would like to create a platform where users can share their scripts, but not if I cannot lock down the scripts from being able to make any system changes.

The biggest hurdle I'm up against is that IronPython is completely unrestricted. I have resorted to doing the following to sand box the app, without forking this code base.

  • Modified the sys module to provide only a handful of its members
  • Created a string list of built in modules to be restricted - based off what I found from IronPython.Modules. Modules like winreg, _thread i have restricted, where modules like time I've kept.
  • Created my own import function of which is a copy-paste from source code with modifications to enforce the restricted modules.
  • Removed some built-in methods. Such as open

I'm hoping this is enough, but I can't be sure. I'm also hoping that by restricting the builtins, i can use the standard library, and modules from the standard library that use the restricted functionality will just not work.

This issue is a request to implement such a mode in this project.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

First steps

  1. Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
  2. Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
  3. Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
  4. Open a pull request that references the issue number.

Research direction

Start by reviewing the existing sys module, builtins, import, and IronPython.Modules behavior described in the issue, then determine which operations a restricted mode must prevent. Define the security boundary and supported restrictions before implementation; done means user scripts cannot make the specified system changes while permitted standard-library functionality remains usable.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
csharp, python
Domain
security
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Stale
Clarity
Needs clarification
Newbie friendliness
25/100

Get new issues in your inbox

A short digest of beginner-friendly GitHub issues.