https://github.com/google/sandboxed-api
Generate sandboxes for C/C++ libraries automatically
https://github.com/google/sandboxed-api
apache-license-2 cplusplus cplusplus-17 sandbox sandboxing sapi security security-hardening
Last synced: 2 days ago
JSON representation
Generate sandboxes for C/C++ libraries automatically
- Host: GitHub
- URL: https://github.com/google/sandboxed-api
- Owner: google
- License: apache-2.0
- Created: 2019-03-07T09:30:45.000Z (almost 7 years ago)
- Default Branch: main
- Last Pushed: 2026-02-19T15:31:38.000Z (8 days ago)
- Last Synced: 2026-02-22T11:35:40.293Z (5 days ago)
- Topics: apache-license-2, cplusplus, cplusplus-17, sandbox, sandboxing, sapi, security, security-hardening
- Language: C++
- Homepage: https://developers.google.com/sandboxed-api/
- Size: 132 MB
- Stars: 1,726
- Watchers: 49
- Forks: 195
- Open Issues: 23
-
Metadata Files:
- Readme: README.md
- Contributing: CONTRIBUTING.md
- License: LICENSE
Awesome Lists containing this project
- awesome-csirt - Sandboxed API
README
Copyright 2019-2025 Google LLC
### Introduction
The open-source Sandboxed API (SAPI) project builds on top of Google's
[Sandbox2](https://developers.google.com/code-sandboxing/sandbox2) and
aims to make sandboxing of C/C++ libraries less burdensome.
Sandboxed API provides three main benefits:
* Instead of sandboxing entire programs or having to change source code to be
able to sandbox a part of a program as with Sandbox2, individual C/C++
libraries can be sandboxed with SAPI. As a result, the main program is
isolated from code execution vulnerabilities in the C/C++ library.
* Our working motto is: Sandbox once, use anywhere. Libraries sandboxed with
Sandboxed API can be reused easily, which removes the burden for future
projects. Before Sandboxed API, sandboxes available for use at Google
required additional implementation work with each new instance of a project
which was intended to be sandboxed, even if it reused the same software
library. Sandbox2 policies and other restrictions applied to the sandboxed
process had to be reimplemented each time, and data exchange mechanisms
between trusted and untrusted parts of the code had to be designed from
scratch.
* Each SAPI library utilizes a tightly defined security policy, in contrast
to the typical sandboxed project, where security policies must cover the
total syscall/resource footprint of all utilized libraries.
Sandboxed API (SAPI) has been designed, developed, and is maintained by members
of the Google Sandbox Team. It also uses our field-tested Sandbox2. Currently,
many internal projects are using SAPI to isolate their production workloads.
Sandbox2 is also open-sourced as part of the SAPI project and can be used
independently.
### Documentation
Developer documentation is available at [Sandboxed API](https://developers.google.com/code-sandboxing/sandboxed-api)
and [Sandbox2](https://developers.google.com/code-sandboxing/sandbox2).
We recommend reading [SAPI Getting Started](https://developers.google.com/code-sandboxing/sandboxed-api/getting-started)
guide, or [Sandbox2 Getting Started](https://developers.google.com/code-sandboxing/sandbox2/full-getting-started)
respectively.
If you are interested in a general overview of sandboxing technologies, see
https://developers.google.com/code-sandboxing.
### Dependencies
SAPI and Sandbox2 both support Bazel and CMake build systems. The following
dependencies are required on Debian 10 Buster:
```
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -qy
bazel \
build-essential \
ccache \
cmake \
g++-12 \
gcc-12 \
git \
gnupg \
libcap-dev \
libclang-18-dev \
libffi-dev \
libncurses-dev \
linux-libc-dev \
llvm-18-dev \
libzstd-dev \
ninja-build \
pkg-config \
python3 \
python3-absl \
python3-clang-16 \
python3-pip \
unzip \
wget \
zip \
zlib1g-dev
```
#### LLVM
SAPI offers two header generators, based on
[Python](tools/python_generator/BUILD) and
[LLVM Libtooling](tools/clang_generator/BUILD).
We aim to provide support for at least the latest three LLVM release and
cross-check with Debian stable.
### Getting Involved
If you want to contribute, please read [CONTRIBUTING.md](CONTRIBUTING.md) and
send us pull requests. You can also report bugs or file feature requests.
If you'd like to talk to the developers or get notified about major product
updates, you may want to subscribe to our
[mailing list](mailto:sandboxed-api-users@googlegroups.com) or sign up with this
[link](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sandboxed-api-users).