I am working on a django based web app that takes python file as input which contains some function, then in backend i have some lists that are passed as parameters through the user's function,which will generate a single value output.The result generated will be used for some further computation.
Here is how the function inside the user's file look like :
def somefunctionname(list):
''' some computation performed on list'''
return float value
At present the approach that i am using is taking user's file as normal file input. Then in my views.py i am executing the file as module and passing the parameters with eval function. Snippet is given below.
Here modulename is the python file name that i had taken from user and importing as module
exec("import "+modulename)
result = eval(f"{modulename}.{somefunctionname}(arguments)")
Which is working absolutely fine. But i know this is not the secured approach.
My question , Is there any other way through which i can run users file securely as the method that i am using is not secure ? I know the proposed solutions can't be full proof but what are the other ways in which i can run this (like if it can be solved with dockerization then what will be the approach or some external tools that i can use with API )? Or if possible can somebody tell me how can i simply sandbox this or any tutorial that can help me..?
Any reference or resource will be helpful.
For sure with docker you can sandbox the execution if you are careful. You can restrict CPU cycles, max memory, close all network ports, run as a user with read only access to the file system and all).
Still,this would be extremely complex to get it right I think. For me you shall not allow a client to execute arbitrar code like that.
I would be to check if a production/solution isn't already done and use that. I was thinking that some sites allow you to submit some code (python, java, whatever) that is executed on the server.