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Re: [Xen-users] Using Xen as a jail for malicious code

To: xen-users@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [Xen-users] Using Xen as a jail for malicious code
From: Mark Williamson <mark.williamson@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 23 Oct 2005 12:37:01 +0100
Cc: Rob Renaud <rrenaud@xxxxxxxxx>
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> I am beginning to write some open source programming contest software
> (http://threec.berlios.de).  I am wondering if Xen would be a suitable
> jail for arbitrary and anonymous code submitted for the judging
> software.

That's what it was originally created for: containment of arbitrary untrusted 
code submitted to a Xenoserver (Xenoservers project described: 
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/Research/SRG/netos/xeno/).

> I'd like to ensure that code can run for only a limited 
> time, use a limited amount of memory, and not have access to resources
> including the network and most of the judger's filesystem.

Yep, that's all doable.  You should obviously take precautions just in case 
somebody's code actively attempts to "break out" of it's domain but even that 
*shouldn't* be possible (we don't know of any way to do this, so if it was 
possible it'd be a high-priority bugfix...).

Cheers,
Mark

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