artch / isolated-vm

Secure & isolated JS environments for nodejs

isolated-vm -- Access to multiple isolates in nodejs

isolated-vm is a library for nodejs which gives you access to v8's Isolate interface. This allows you to create JavaScript environments which are completely isolated from each other. You might find this module useful if you need to run some untrusted code in a secure way. You may also find this module useful if you need to run some JavaScript simultaneously in multiple threads. You may find this project very useful if you need to do both at the same time!

API DOCUMENTATION

Since isolates share no resources with each other, most of this API is built to provide primitives which make marshalling data between many isolates quick and easy. The only way to pass data from one isolate to another is to first make that data transferable. Primitives (except for Symbol) are always transferable. This means if you invoke a function in a different isolate with a number or string as the argument, it will work fine. If you need to pass more complex information you will have to first make the data transferable with one of the methods here.

Most methods will provide both a synchronous and an asynchronous version. Calling the synchronous functions will block your thread while the method runs and eventually returns a value. The asynchronous functions will return a Promise while the work runs in a separate thread pool.

There are some rules about which functions may be called from certain contexts:

1. Asynchronous functions may be called at any time
2. Synchronous functions usually may not be called from an asynchronous function
3. You may call a synchronous function from an asynchronous function as long as that function belongs to current isolate
4. You may call a synchronous function belonging to the default nodejs isolate at any time

Additionally, some methods will provide an "ignored" version which runs asynchronously but returns no promise. This can be a good option when the calling isolate would ignore the promise anyway, since the ignored versions can skip an extra thread synchronization. Just be careful because this swallows any thrown exceptions which might make problems hard to track down.

It's also worth noting that all asynchronous invocations will run in the order they were queued, regardless of whether or not you wait on them. So, for instance, you could call several "ignored" methods in a row and then await on a final async method to observe some side-effect of the ignored methods.

Class: Isolate [transferable]

This is the main reference to an isolate. Every handle to an isolate is transferable, which means you can give isolates references to each other. An isolate will remain valid as long as someone holds a handle to the isolate or anything created inside that isolate. Once an isolate is lost the garbage collector should eventually find it and clean up its memory. Since an isolate and all it contains can represent quite a large chunk of memory though you may want to explicitly call the dispose() method on isolates that you are finished with to get that memory back immediately.

new ivm.Isolate(options)

• options [object]
  • memoryLimit [number] - Memory limit that this isolate may use, in MB. Note that this is more of a guideline instead of a strict limit. A determined attacker could use 2-3 times this limit before their script is terminated. Against non-hostile code this limit should be pretty close. The default is 128MB and the mimium is 8MB.
  • inspector [boolean] - Enable v8 inspector support in this isolate. See inspector-example.js in this repository for an example of how to use this.
  • snapshot [ExternalCopy[ArrayBuffer]] - This is an optional snapshot created from createSnapshot which will be used to initialize the heap of this isolate.

ivm.Isolate.createSnapshot(scripts, warmup_script)

• scripts [array]
  • code [string] - Script to setup this snapshot
  • filename [string] - Optional filename of this script, used in stack traces
  • columnOffset [number] - Optional column offset of this script
  • lineOffset [number] - Optional line offset of this script
• warmup_script [string] - Optional script to "warmup" the snapshot by triggering code compilation

Isolate snapshots are a very useful feature if you intend to create several isolates running common libraries between them. A snapshot serializes the entire v8 heap including parsed code, global variables, and compiled code. Check out the examples section for tips on using this.

isolate.compileScript(code) Promise

isolate.compileScriptSync(code)

• code [string] - The JavaScript code to compile.

• options [object]

  • filename [string] - Optional filename of this script, used in stack traces
  • columnOffset [number] - Optional column offset of this script
  • lineOffset [number] - Optional line offset of this script
  • produceCachedData [boolean] - Produce V8 cache data. Similar to the VM.Script option of the same name. If this is true then the returned script object will have cachedData set to an ExternalCopy handle. Note that this differs from the VM.Script option slightly in that cachedDataProduced is never set.
  • cachedData [ExternalCopy[ArrayBuffer]] - This will consume cached compilation data from a previous call to this function. Please don't use produceCachedData and cachedData options at the same time. cachedDataRejected will be set to true if the supplied data was rejected by V8.

• return A Script object.

Note that a Script can only run in the isolate which created it.

isolate.createContext() Promise

isolate.createContextSync()

• options [object]

  • inspector [boolean] - Enable the v8 inspector for this context. The inspector must have been enabled for the isolate as well.

• return A Context object.

isolate.dispose()

Destroys this isolate and invalidates all references obtained from it.

isolate.getHeapStatistics() Promise

isolate.getHeapStatisticsSync()

• return [object]

isolate.isDisposed [boolean]

Flag that indicates whether this isolate has been disposed.

Returns heap statistics from v8. The return value is almost identical to the nodejs function v8.getHeapStatistics(). This function returns one additional property: externally_allocated_size which is the total amount of currently allocated memory which is not included in the v8 heap but counts against this isolate's memoryLimit. ArrayBuffer instances over a certain size are externally allocated and will be counted here.

isolate.cpuTime [Array]

isolate.wallTime [Array]

The total CPU and wall time spent in this isolate. CPU time is the amount of time the isolate has spent actively doing work on the CPU. Wall time is the amount of time the isolate has been running, including passive time spent waiting (think "wall" like a clock on the wall). For instance, if an isolate makes a call into another isolate, wall time will continue increasing while CPU time will remain the same.

The return format is [ seconds, nanoseconds ], which is the same as the nodejs method [process.hrtime](https://nodejs.org/api/process.html#process_process_hrtime_time). To convert this value to milliseconds you could do something like: (ret[0] + ret[1] / 1e9) * 1000. Some precision is lost in this conversion but for most applications it's probably not a big deal.

Note that CPU time may vary drastically if there is contention for the CPU. This could occur if other processes are trying to do work, or if you have more than require('os').cpus().length isolates currently doing work in the same nodejs process.

Class: Context [transferable]

A context is a sandboxed execution environment within an isolate. Each context contains its own built-in objects and global space.

context.global Reference

Reference to this context's global object. Note that if you call context.release() the global reference will be released as well.

context.release()

Releases this reference to the context. You can call this to free up v8 resources immediately, or you can let the garbage collector handle it when it feels like it. Note that if there are other references to this context it will not be disposed. This only affects this reference to the context.

Class: Script [transferable]

A script is a compiled chunk of JavaScript which can be executed in any context within a single isolate.

script.run(context) Promise

script.runIgnored(context)

script.runSync(context)

• context Context - The context in which this script will run.
• options [object]
  • timeout [number] - Maximum amount of time this script is allowed to run before execution is canceled. Default is no timeout.
• return [transferable]

Runs a given script within a context. This will return the last value evaluated in a given script, as long as that value was transferable, otherwise undefined will be returned. For instance if your script was "let foo = 1; let bar = 2; bar = foo + bar" then the return value will be 3 because that is the last expression.

Class: Reference [transferable]

A instance of Reference is a pointer to a value stored in any isolate.

reference.typeof [string]

This is the typeof the referenced value, and is available at any time from any isolate. Note that this differs from the real typeof operator in that null is "null", and Symbols are "object".

reference.copy() Promise

reference.copySync()

• return JavaScript value of the reference.

Creates a copy of the referenced value and internalizes it into this isolate. This uses the same copy rules as ExternalCopy.

reference.deref()

• options [object]
  • release [boolean] - If true release() will automatically be called on this instance.
• return The value referenced by this handle.

Will attempt to return the actual value or object pointed to by this reference. Note that in order to call this function the reference must be owned by the current isolate, otherwise an error will be thrown.

reference.derefInto()

• options [object]
  • release [boolean] - If true release() will automatically be called on this instance.
• return [transferable]

Returns an object, which when passed to another isolate will cause that isolate to dereference the handle.

reference.release()

Releases this reference. If you're passing around a lot of references between isolates it's wise to release the references when you are done. Otherwise you may run into issues with isolates running out of memory because other isolates haven't garbage collected recently. After calling this method all attempts to access the reference will throw an error.

reference.get(property) Promise

reference.getSync(property)

• property [transferable] - The property to access on this object.
• return A Reference object.

Will access a reference as if using reference[property] and return a reference to that value.

reference.set(property, value) Promise

reference.setIgnored(property, value)

reference.setSync(property, value)

• property [transferable] - The property to set on this object.
• value [transferable] - The value to set on this object.
• return true or false

Returns a boolean indicating whether or not this operation succeeded. I'm actually not really sure when false would be returned, I'm just giving you the result back straight from the v8 API.

reference.apply(receiver, arguments) Promise

reference.applyIgnored(receiver, arguments)

reference.applySync(receiver, arguments)

reference.applySyncPromise(receiver, arguments)

• receiver [transferable] - The value which will be this.
• arguments [array] - Array of transferables which will be passed to the function.
• options [object]
  • timeout [number] - Maximum amount of time this function is allowed to run before execution is canceled. Default is no timeout.
• return [transferable]

Will attempt to invoke an object as if it were a function. If the return value is transferable it will be returned to the caller of apply, otherwise an error will be thrown.

applySyncPromise is a special version of applySync which may only be invoked on functions belonging to the default isolate AND may only be invoked from a non-default thread. Functions invoked in this way may return a promise and the invoking isolate will wait for that promise to resolve before resuming execution. You can use this to implement functions like readFileSync in a way that doesn't block the default isolate. Note that the invoking isolate will not respond to any async functions until this promise is resolved, however synchronous functions will still function correctly. Misuse of this feature may result in deadlocked isolates, though the default isolate will never be at risk of a deadlock.

Class: ExternalCopy [transferable]

Instances of this class represent some value that is stored outside of any v8 isolate. This value can then be quickly copied into any isolate.

new ivm.ExternalCopy(value, options)

• value - The value to copy.
• options [object]
  • transferOut [boolean] - If true this will release ownership of the given resource from this isolate. This operation completes in constant time since it doesn't have to copy an arbitrarily large object. This only applies to ArrayBuffer and TypedArray instances.

Primitive values can be copied exactly as they are. Date objects will be copied as as Dates. ArrayBuffers, TypedArrays, and DataViews will be copied in an efficient format. SharedArrayBuffers will simply copy a reference to the existing memory and when copied into another isolate the new SharedArrayBuffer will point to the same underlying data. After passing a SharedArrayBuffer to ExternalCopy for the first time isolated-vm will take over management of the underlying memory block, so a "copied" SharedArrayBuffer can outlive the isolate that created the memory originally.

All other objects will be copied in seralized form using the structured clone algorithm.

ExternalCopy.totalExternalSize [number]

This is a static property which will return the total number of bytes that isolated-vm has allocated outside of v8 due to instances of ExternalCopy.

externalCopy.copy(options)

• options [object]
  • release [boolean] - If true release() will automatically be called on this instance.
  • transferIn [boolean] - If true this will transfer the resource directly into this isolate, invalidating the ExternalCopy handle.
• return - JavaScript value of the external copy.

Internalizes the ExternalCopy data into this isolate.

externalCopy.copyInto(options)

• options [object]
  • release [boolean] - If true release() will automatically be called on this instance.
  • transferIn [boolean] - If true this will transfer the resource directly into this isolate, invalidating the ExternalCopy handle.
• return [transferable]

Returns an object, which when passed to another isolate will cause that isolate to internalize a copy of this value.

externalCopy.release()

Releases the reference to this copy. If there are other references to this copy elsewhere the copy will still remain in memory, but this handle will no longer be active. Disposing ExternalCopy instances isn't super important, v8 is a lot better at cleaning these up automatically because there's no inter-isolate dependencies.

EXAMPLES

Below is a sample program which shows basic usage of the library.

// Create a new isolate limited to 128MB
let ivm = require('isolated-vm');
let isolate = new ivm.Isolate({ memoryLimit: 128 });

// Create a new context within this isolate. Each context has its own copy of all the builtin
// Objects. So for instance if one context does Object.prototype.foo = 1 this would not affect any
// other contexts.
let context = isolate.createContextSync();

// Get a Reference{} to the global object within the context.
let jail = context.global;

// This make the global object available in the context as `global`. We use `derefInto()` here
// because otherwise `global` would actually be a Reference{} object in the new isolate.
jail.setSync('global', jail.derefInto());

// The entire ivm module is transferable! We transfer the module to the new isolate so that we
// have access to the library from within the isolate.
jail.setSync('_ivm', ivm);

// We will create a basic `log` function for the new isolate to use.
jail.setSync('_log', new ivm.Reference(function(...args) {
	console.log(...args);
}));

// This will bootstrap the context. Prependeng 'new ' to a function is just a convenient way to
// convert that function into a self-executing closure that is still syntax highlighted by
// editors. It drives strict mode and linters crazy though.
let bootstrap = isolate.compileScriptSync('new '+ function() {
	// Grab a reference to the ivm module and delete it from global scope. Now this closure is the
	// only place in the context with a reference to the module. The `ivm` module is very powerful
	// so you should not put it in the hands of untrusted code.
	let ivm = _ivm;
	delete _ivm;

	// Now we create the other half of the `log` function in this isolate. We'll just take every
	// argument, create an external copy of it and pass it along to the log function above.
	let log = _log;
	delete _log;
	global.log = function(...args) {
		// We use `copyInto()` here so that on the other side we don't have to call `copy()`. It
		// doesn't make a difference who requests the copy, the result is the same.
		// `applyIgnored` calls `log` asynchronously but doesn't return a promise-- it ignores the
		// return value or thrown exception from `log`.
		log.applyIgnored(undefined, args.map(arg => new ivm.ExternalCopy(arg).copyInto()));
	};
});

// Now we can execute the script we just compiled:
bootstrap.runSync(context);

// And let's test it out:
isolate.compileScriptSync('log("hello world")').runSync(context);
// > hello world

// Let's see what happens when we try to blow the isolate's memory
let hostile = isolate.compileScriptSync('new '+ function() {
	let storage = [];
	let twoMegabytes = 1024 * 1024 * 2;
	while (true) {
		let array = new Uint8Array(twoMegabytes);
		for (let ii = 0; ii < twoMegabytes; ii += 4096) {
			array[ii] = 1; // we have to put something in the array to flush to real memory
		}
		storage.push(array);
		log('I\'ve wasted '+ (storage.length * 2)+ 'MB');
	}
});

// Using the async version of `run` so that calls to `log` will get to the main node isolate
hostile.run(context).catch(err => console.error(err));
// I've wasted 2MB
// I've wasted 4MB
// ...
// I've wasted 122MB
// I've wasted 124MB
// RangeError: Array buffer allocation failed

Another example which shows how calls to the asynchronous methods will execute in separate threads providing you with parallelism. Note that each isolate only "owns" a thread while it is executing. So you could have hundreds of isolates sitting idle and they would not be using a thread.

// A simple function to sum a range of numbers. This can also be expressed as:
// (max * (max - 1) - min * (min - 1)) / 2
// But this is an easy way to show off the async features of the module.
function sum(min, max) {
	let sum = 0;
	for (let ii = min; ii < max; ++ii) {
		sum += ii;
	}
	return sum;
}

// I chose this number because it's big but also small enough that we don't go past JS's integer
// limit.
let num = Math.pow(2, 27);

// First we execute a single thread run
let start1 = new Date;
let result = sum(0, num);
console.log('Calculated '+ result+ ' in '+ (Date.now() - start1)+ 'ms');

// Now we do the same thing over 4 threads
let start2 = new Date;
let ivm = require('isolated-vm');
let numThreads = 4;
let promises = Array(numThreads).fill().map(async function(_, ii) {

	// Set up 4 isolates with the `sum` function from above
	let isolate = new ivm.Isolate();
	let context = await isolate.createContext();
	let script = await isolate.compileScript(sum+ '');
	await script.run(context);
	let fnReference = await context.global.get('sum');

	// Run one slice of the sum loop
	let min = Math.floor(num / numThreads * ii);
	let max = Math.floor(num / numThreads * (ii + 1));
	return await fnReference.apply(undefined, [ min, max ]);
});
Promise.all(promises).then(function(sums) {
	let result = sums.reduce((a, b) => a + b, 0);
	console.log('Calculated '+ result+ ' in '+ (Date.now() - start2)+ 'ms');
});
// They get the same answer but the async version can do it much faster! Even
// with the overhead of building 4 isolates
// > Calculated 9007199187632128 in 1485ms
// > Calculated 9007199187632128 in 439ms

A quick example which shows how the snapshot feature works.

let ivm = require('isolated-vm');

// Create a new snapshot which adds the `sum` function to all contexts created
let snapshot = ivm.Isolate.createSnapshot([ { code: 'function sum(a,b) { return a + b }' } ]);

// v8 provides the ability to "warmup" snapshots by calling the functions inside your snapshot which
// will trigger a code compilation, you can use the second parameter for that. A much easier way to
// included compiled code in the snapshot would be to run node with `--nolazy` when you generate the
// snapshot, then you can load the snapshot into your node instances using no special flags.
//
// `snapshot` is an ExternalCopy[ArrayBuffer]. If you wanted to save this snapshot to a file you
// would do this:
// fs.writeFileSync('snapshot.bin', Buffer.from(snapshot.copy()))
//
// And then to read it in again:
// snapshot = new ivm.ExternalCopy(fs.readFileSync('snapshot.bin').buffer);

// Here we'll create a new isolate using this snapshot and confirm that our `sum` function is there
let isolate = new ivm.Isolate({ snapshot });
let context = isolate.createContextSync();
let script = isolate.compileScriptSync('sum(1, 2)');
console.log(script.runSync(context));
// logs: 3