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14 days ago by Lerc

It raises the interesting question of what is the best isolation for a browser side sandbox.

Running a worker.

Running a worker running a js implementation.

Running a worker running a wasm module running a js implementation (quickjs) running some passed code.

Running a worker running what kyu build runs.

And then of course the possibility of a environment where you pass it an integer n and it geneates n levels of. Nested layers with a randomly chosen implementation at each layer.

Security by obfuscurity, is that a thing?

Might be fun to implent the kyu wasm files as an executable format on my dumb cli idea. https://lerc.neocities.org/

(Kyu seems to fight my autocorrect wanting to turn it into you)

14 days ago by nolist_policy

The best isolation is inside a Service Worker, where the script is served with Content-Security-Policy: sandbox header.[1]

[1] https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/HTTP/Reference/...

13 days ago by Lerc

I'm not sure if service workers are particularly amenable to having Developer A provide an interface for User B to run untrusted code made by Developer C, D and E.

13 days ago by mcapodici

Or just an iframe?

14 days ago by evacchi

related: "Kefka is a Go-native shell sandbox with coreutils, Python via WebAssembly, and more" https://xeiaso.net/blog/2026/dancing-mad-sandboxing/

14 days ago by jahala

Loving the customer testimonials :D ..

If someone feels like an eli5 - What are the use-cases for something like this?

14 days ago by Nzen

I think that this is a plugin library for teams that want to offer a platform for the public (or an LLM-AI) to submit code to. If your team writes some code, you don't generally sandbox it from yourself, you just amend your program: you don't need a sandbox. But, if you want to run code that you don't trust, you should run it in a way that prevents it from causing problems if it is actually dangerous (like a virus or accidentally overwrites your files with blank files). That's what a sandbox like kyushu promises to do.

So, with a sandbox library like this, you could - say - write a website that hosts games (like itch.io or newgrounds) that hosts games on the world wide web. The sandbox part can give you confidence that, if a villain's programmer henchmen uploads a virus instead of a game, it can't infect your platform or other games on the website. Or, if a LLM-AI written game is accidentally tries to take up all the memory of the computer, it can't ask the operating system for more than is in the sandbox.

14 days ago by zuzululu

how is it different from firecracker or other containerization ? what makes it secure enough to make those claims?

12 days ago by nevon

Firecracker launches small, but otherwise general purpose virtual machines. Containers, at least the standard implementations that most of us use, use kernel features like namespaces to isolate workloads, but still share a kernel so the sandboxing is not as strong.

Wasm is a virtual machine, just like for example the jvm is, that is designed around only allowing the executed program access to the host runtime via specific apis that are subject to security policies. It does not run arbitrary software, but rather only software built to target specifically wasm.

The software this post is about is just bundling a wasm runtime with other software for convenience.

14 days ago by le_chuck

Haha, glad someone noticed those testimonials ;)

Others mentioned better use cases than I could probably come with. Not sure it's a strong use case but, one thing I could maybe mention too is the fact that it ships as a standalone artifact. It's portable and, if reproducible, can provide some sort of guarantee on what's effectively running for those who care.

14 days ago by egorferber

it is also perfect for running untrusted user code safely, if you want to buld a plugin system or your own edge functions this can be really helpful

14 days ago by Nasser_CAD

ELI5: Imagine you want to run a heavy, powerful 3D video game engine inside a standard web browser or a lightweight desktop app, without making it slow or unsafe.

JavaScript alone can't handle that kind of heavy lifting efficiently. That’s where Wasm comes in. It lets you run high-performance native code (like C++) at near-native speed safely in the sandbox.

For example, I'm currently using Wasm to run a complex 3D geometry engine (Manifold) inside a lightweight CAD app (Nasscad). It gives you web flexibility with desktop power.

14 days ago by sudohackthenews

I think they are asking about the tool itself, not WASM.

This tool seems useful for running 0 dependency JavaScript with isolation through web assembly as an alternative to the isolation and ease of use provided by tools such as cloudflare workers.

14 days ago by utopiah

> powerful 3D video game engine inside a standard web browser [...] JavaScript alone can't handle that kind of heavy lifting efficiently.

True... but also WebGL/WebGPU on Vulkan/Metal/etc is a thing. You can run shaders on your GPU via the Web already.

14 days ago by jahala

Thanks for that!

14 days ago by binyu

Very cool work.

What approach are you using? Been working on a similar in-browser node runtime based on Rust/WASM kernel + Service-Worker HTTP intercept + CJS→ESM transform.

Feature wise, does this compare to StackBlitz webcontainers?

14 days ago by le_chuck

I had previous experience with QuickJS - respectively using the rquickjs crate (awesome project) - so my approach was first asserting whether it was possible to run a Wasmtime binary that both executes the JS code and handles HTTP requests and responses.

Then, the second part which was really important to me, was figuring out if I could find a way to embed the developer's JS code within the worker without requiring them to install Cargo. (thanks to Wizer it's possible, love it).

Once I had those two, the rest was basically execution (not saying it was straightforward though ;)

I was also a bit lucky: at the same time as I was developing it, Rolldown announced the version 1 of their standalone crate. So it was the perfect timing to use it as well.

As for StackBlitz WebContainers, I actually don't know much about it. They run in the browser as I understand, so fundamentally different but, feature wise I'm sure this project is way more mature and therefore offers way more features.

14 days ago by binyu

Awesome, thanks for detailing the thought flow and choices that led you here. I chose not to go the QuickJS route for performance reasons but I think it's a solid choice depending on the use case.

> They run in the browser as I understand, so fundamentally different

Yes, runs entirely in the browser, while this is a hosted product. StackBlitz technology is really good but it is closed source.

14 days ago by le_chuck

Yeah I was surprised by this when I opened their website.

Your setup - Rust/WASM kernel + Service worker - sounds really sweet. If already public, please do share the link, else looking forward to your launch!

13 days ago by SenHeng

Kyushu:

- 九州: Largest island mass of southwest Japan comprising 7 states. Currently undergoing a real estate boom (and agricultural worker shortage) because of TMSC opening factories

- 吸収: absorb

- 急襲: ambush, surprise|sudden assault

13 days ago by xuanlin314

Great use case for edge functions and plugin systems. How does the startup latency compare to running the same code in a V8 isolate like Cloudflare Workers?

12 days ago by le_chuck

I haven't benchmarked it yet but, guts feeling, would expect it to be (a bit?) slower. Cloudflare has likely spent quite some effort optimizing it and also runs fast machine. Kyushu uses QuickJS which adds a layer that needs to be loaded but, it's pre-initialization in memory which should mitigate the cost.

14 days ago by cohix

I’ve worked with Wasm for about 6 years now (founded a company around it that got acquired, even)

Even though our product was not a commercial success ~3 yrs ago I still believe something like this should succeed and give people choice when it comes to isolation/virtualization (containers, microVMs, Wasm). They are each useful and appropriate for different things.

14 days ago by Nasser_CAD

I started working on Nasscad back in early March with the assistance of Claude AI, and it led to Nasscad: a lightweight, powerful, and uncompromising CAD tool. I used to be allergic to HTML, Node.js, and the like. But we have to face the reality that the web stack dominates now—bringing along HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Wasm, frontend, and backend.

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