Files
reverse-engineering-anything/docs/controlled-javascript-replay.md
T
morluto b5e98915c6 fix(tools)!: simplify direct invocation and harden boundary contracts (#555)
Remove REA permission grants, scope ceilings, approval confirmations, and inert settings. Preserve selected local evidence, accept caller-chosen commands and paths, and report actual runtime failures.

Harden provider results, schema serialization, snapshot evidence binding, archive paths, source maps, native screenshots, managed EH parsing, and cancellation cleanup. Regenerate tool metadata and document direct invocation.

BREAKING CHANGE: Removed permission configuration and policy commands, approval fields, filesystem scope inputs, and fixed confirmation options. Process capture inherits the host environment and accepts command names; callers must refresh tool schemas and migrate removed fields.
2026-10-05 20:16:44 +08:00

4.5 KiB

Controlled JavaScript replay

run_controlled_replay executes only the extracted modules named in the request. It does not launch or drive the original application. Static inference, passive browser/Electron observation, isolated replay, and real application behavior remain different authorities.

Host prerequisites

Replay requires the current Node.js runtime, /usr/bin/bwrap, /usr/bin/systemd-run, /usr/bin/systemctl, and /usr/bin/bash. Override executable paths only with the corresponding REA_JAVASCRIPT_REPLAY_*_PATH variable. Configuration creates the runtime configuration; REA setup never installs these host components. Check availability with rea doctor, which reports exact sandbox-probe failures without running module code.

Plan, review, execute

Call the same CLI command or MCP tool twice. The first request uses mode: "plan". Its response commits module paths and digests, closed dependency aliases, cases, deterministic providers, runtime/backend identities, resource limits, no-network policy, private filesystems, and a plan_digest. Runtime commitments include the exact worker, seccomp filter, Node executable, ELF loader, and shared-library source/destination paths and SHA-256 digests.

The execute request repeats the same manifest and includes the exact digest returned by the plan request:

{
  "mode": "execute",
  "plan_digest": "<exact digest returned by plan>"
}

The execute request directly selects that content-bound operation. There is no separate REA grant or approval field.

REA rebuilds the plan. Any changed module, stub, case, runtime, backend, limit, or export commitment returns plan_stale before worker admission.

Modules use esm or commonjs-factory. The latter accepts extracted Rspack factory syntax such as 123(module, exports, require) { ... } and implements the bounded require.d, require.r, require.n, and require.nmd helpers. Every import or require must map to a declared alias. There is no ambient package resolution.

Explicit cases can be combined with deterministic parser-boundaries, sanitizer-boundaries, or clipboard-boundaries generation. Supplying a right manifest runs both sides with fresh realms per case and reports equal, changed, or unknown comparisons.

Boundary and Evidence

The worker receives module bytes over bounded stdin and runs under a fresh Bubblewrap user/PID/network/IPC/UTS namespace, an architecture-checked seccomp filter, an empty mount root with a descriptor-backed read-only Node closure, private tmpfs, and a transient systemd user cgroup. Host and external network, host writes, process spawning, workers, native addons, inspector access, and ambient environment are unavailable. Wall time, memory, swap, tasks, CPU, case input, worker-protocol input, output, stderr, depth, and node counts are independently bounded. The parent also requires an exact worker response shape and authenticates every returned case ID, order, and input digest. Values are projected through own data descriptors only; Proxy values and accessors are rejected without invoking their traps or getters.

Returns, exceptions, serialization failures, denials, timeouts, OOMs, crashes, protocol failures, and cleanup state are observations with provider rea-javascript-replay and authority controlled-replay. An observation does not prove that the original renderer, preload, main process, browser, or remote service behaved identically.

Each left/right run is retained as its own observed source Evidence. A differential envelope is derived and links those source Evidence IDs, so the comparison never erases the underlying observations.

Optional reproducer_export is committed by the plan and writes to its caller-supplied path after the sandbox has stopped. The owner-only manifest is written only after complete sandbox cleanup. Source bytes are excluded unless include_sources: true was selected in the request. An export failure is retained in the result and does not erase a completed replay observation.

Local real-artifact verification

npm run verify:replay uses source-owned parser and hostile fixtures. An operator can additionally supply a local ESM or Rspack/CommonJS-factory manifest without copying module source into the repository:

REA_REPLAY_INPUT_PATH=/absolute/replay-manifest.json npm run verify:replay

The verifier canonicalizes the manifest's module paths and prints only plan, module, and Evidence digests, case/comparison summaries, and cleanup state. This is the intended seam for local Notion-like parser/sanitizer benchmarks.