The JVM is by design an insecure environment and it is generally difficult to run untrusted code in a sandboxed environment.

However, it seems that is relatively easy to sandbox JavaScript code running in Oracle Nashorn. The instructions are here. Strangely, this was not easy to find through a Google search.

Below I have listed some further sources on Sandboxing JavaScript and Java code. Although there is plenty of material on Rhino, I would not recommend using this engine. I think Nashorn has been designed with support for Sandboxed code in mind from the very beginning while in Rhino the functionality feels kind of bolted on.

UPDATE I have implemented two little libraries which takes care of the grunt work of sandboxing Nashorn and Rhino code in Java:

Nashorn Sandbox (on GitHub)

Rhino Sandbox (on Github)

Sandboxing JavaScript

Nashorn

Restricting Script Access to Specified Java Classes: From the Oracle Nashorn docs. Shows how to restrict access to specific Java classes.

Rhino

Class ContextFactory: Useful for monitoring and setting restrictions on Rhino code.

Method initSafeStandardObjects: Useful for creating sandboxed Rhino code.

Rhino Sandbox: A small library for sandboxing JavaScript code running in Rhino.

Sandboxing Rhino in Java: Blog post

Securing Rhino in Java6: Blog post

DynJS

Sandboxing JavaScript Execution in Java: Blog post

Sandboxing Java

Example Code Monitoring Threads: Example code how thread CPU usage can be monitored.

The Java Sandbox: A library for sandboxing any Java code. Might be useful to sandbox the Java code with runs the script.

jdk-rhino - Posts

Sandboxing JavaScript in Java App – Link CollectionPublished onThu, 06 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT

Sandboxing JavaScript in Java App – Link Collection
Published on
Thu, 06 Aug 2015 00:00:00 GMT