Why Python Cannot Be Sandboxed and Alternative Approaches: Firecracker, gVisor, and WASM

Summary

This article examines the fundamental challenges of sandboxing Python code and compares different sandboxing approaches. It explains why Python cannot be effectively sandboxed due to its highly introspective nature, mutable runtime, and the ability to access core interpreter elements through the object graph. The article then compares alternative sandboxing solutions including Firecracker (microVMs), gVisor (container sandboxing), and WebAssembly (WASM) as more viable approaches for running untrusted code securely.