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Implement a node.js-free, sandboxed, context isolated renderer Β #92164

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Implement a node.js-free, sandboxed, context isolated renderer #92164
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bpaserodeepak1556alexdimarzhao271
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plan-itemVS Code - planned item for upcomingsandboxRunning VSCode in a node-free environment
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July 2022

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@egamma
Erich Gamma (egamma)
opened on Mar 6, 2020

We want to explore a model where the workbench in Electron does not access node.js APIs. In that model the Electron renderer process runs in sandboxed mode, much like any browser tab would do. Privileged code has to either move into a backend process and be accessible via IPC communication or into a preload script that exposes certain methods to the page.

July

Backlog

  • Tests:
    • common/browser: run in BrowserWindow with sandbox: true
    • node.js/electron-browser: run in ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE

Architecture

image

Activity

  1. Erich Gamma (egamma)
    added
    plan-itemVS Code - planned item for upcoming
    on Mar 6, 2020
  2. Erich Gamma (egamma)
    added this to the March 2020 milestone on Mar 6, 2020
  3. Erich Gamma (egamma)
    assigned
    Benjamin Pasero (bpasero)
    and
    Robo (deepak1556)
    on Mar 6, 2020

  4. jrieken commented on Mar 9, 2020

    @jrieken
    Johannes Rieken (jrieken)
    on Mar 9, 2020
    Contributor

    An "implict" node-dependency that's not listed here is code loading. Today, the loader uses the fs and vm-modules which allows for v8 cached data usage.

  5. bpasero commented on Mar 12, 2020

    @bpasero
    Benjamin Pasero (bpasero)
    on Mar 12, 2020
    Contributor

    Bootstrap sandboxed workbench code pointers:

    • enable sandbox & contextIsolation in window.ts
    • load something like a workbench-sandboxed.html from doGetUrl
    • this will likely fail early on because of our AMD loader requiring node.js for cached data etc. and some other things we depend on from window.js so we need something like workbench-sandboxed.js and possibly workbench-preload.js that work properly in this mode
    • instead of vs/workbench/workbench.desktop.main load a vs/workbench/workbench.desktop-sandboxed.main here with those things commented out that are not yet adopted
    • instead of vs/workbench/electron-browser/desktop.main, require a vs/workbench/browser/desktop-sandboxed.main here that brings up the workbench without depending on node.js
  6. Benjamin Pasero (bpasero)
    added
    sandboxRunning VSCode in a node-free environment
    on Mar 24, 2020
  7. Benjamin Pasero (bpasero)
    modified the milestones: March 2020, April 2020 on Mar 27, 2020

  8. dbaeumer commented on Apr 15, 2020

    @dbaeumer
    Dirk BΓ€umer (dbaeumer)
    on Apr 15, 2020
    Member

    Benjamin Pasero (@bpasero) we shouldn't mix localization support in the Web with support for Node free renderer. We need a very different story for the Web whereas for a node free renderer we can still install the LP on the local disk. We can simply not access them from the renderer. So I will change the item (I have discussed it that way with Erich Gamma (@egamma) as well)

  9. Benjamin Pasero (bpasero)
    modified the milestones: April 2020, May 2020 on Apr 27, 2020
  10. Benjamin Pasero (bpasero)
    changed the title [-]Exploration: node.js-free, sandboxed renderer [/-] [+]node.js-free, sandboxed renderer [/+] on May 24, 2020
  11. Benjamin Pasero (bpasero)
    modified the milestones: May 2020, June 2020 on May 29, 2020

  12. 12 remaining items

  13. mjbvz commented on Mar 30, 2021

    @mjbvz
    Matt Bierner (mjbvz)
    on Mar 30, 2021
    Contributor

    368f44e enables iframe based webviews on desktop when search functionality is not required. We'll get testing of the iframe based webviews during 1.56 insiders

  14. Benjamin Pasero (bpasero)
    assigned
    Raymond Zhao (rzhao271)
    on May 26, 2021
  15. Matt Bierner (mjbvz)
    added a commit that references this issue on Jul 6, 2021

    Switch entirely to iframe based webviews on desktop

    2222f3c

  16. Tyriar commented on Aug 27, 2021

    @Tyriar
    Daniel Imms (Tyriar)
    on Aug 27, 2021
    Contributor

    FYI following up on #116337, I believe the slowness I sometimes see with terminals is a result of the multiple process jumps since we can't communicate directly between the renderer and pty host yet. Was there an issue tracking this direct channel between renderer to arbitrary node process?

  17. bpasero commented on Aug 27, 2021

    @bpasero
    Benjamin Pasero (bpasero)
    on Aug 27, 2021
    Contributor

    Daniel Imms (@Tyriar) we had it on our project board, but not as issue. I converted it to one and suggest you ping Deepak about status: #131798

  18. metmeylmz commented on Oct 31, 2021

    @metmeylmz
    metmeylmz
    on Oct 31, 2021 Β· Hidden as off-topic

  19. sandy081 commented on Jan 4, 2022

    @sandy081
    Sandeep Somavarapu (sandy081)
    on Jan 4, 2022
    Member

    CachedExtensionScanner is owned by Alexandru Dima (@alexdima) and hence removing my name.

  20. Alexandru Dima (alexdima)
    self-assigned this
    on Jan 11, 2022

  21. wzhudev commented on Feb 18, 2022

    @wzhudev
    Wenzhao Hu (wzhudev)
    on Feb 18, 2022

    Will floating window get supported (or easier to implement) under this new architecture?

  22. bpasero commented on Feb 18, 2022

    @bpasero
    Benjamin Pasero (bpasero)
    on Feb 18, 2022
    Contributor

    No, it should not have any impact on that.

  23. Benjamin Pasero (bpasero)
    modified the milestones: On Deck, July 2022 on Jul 4, 2022

  24. bpasero commented on Jul 22, 2022

    @bpasero
    Benjamin Pasero (bpasero)
    on Jul 22, 2022
    Contributor

    I think it is about time to close this one, insider builds are out on all platforms that allow to enable the sandbox via "window.experimental.useSandbox": true and #155827 is a test plan item to verify it works.

    Remaining issues are tracked with sandbox label: sandbox Running VSCode in a node-free environment

    Thinking on the timeline:

    • enable sandbox by default in insiders in August
    • enable sandbox by default in stable in September/October pending issues found

    πŸ₯‡

  25. Benjamin Pasero (bpasero)
    closed this as completedon Jul 22, 2022
  26. github-actions
    locked and limited conversation to collaborators on Sep 5, 2022
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