How Shopify Uses WebAssembly Outside of the Browser
shopify.engineering
How Shopify Uses WebAssembly Outside of the Browser
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Re: How Shopify Uses WebAssembly Outside of the Browser
#2What does this mean for Shopify merchants? Is it all just faster apps?
I'm still at a loss that Shopify still does not have a subscriptions product. :/
Re: How Shopify Uses WebAssembly Outside of the Browser
#3What does this mean for Shopify merchants? Is it all just faster apps? I'm still at a loss that Shopify still does not have a subscriptions product. :/
They do allow merchants to sell subscriptions - https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/subscriptions
Re: How Shopify Uses WebAssembly Outside of the Browser
#4What does this mean for Shopify merchants? Is it all just faster apps? I'm still at a loss that Shopify still does not have a subscriptions product. :/
They do allow merchants to sell subscriptions - https://help.shopify.com/en/manual/products/subscriptions
I think this is super new - there are only two apps that offer subscriptions that integrate with Shopify Checkout, and one of them launched in November it seems and is still in beta:
Re: How Shopify Uses WebAssembly Outside of the Browser
#5Technically you can accomplish the same thing using seccomp, I.e. the way most services run third party native code to process untrusted data, e.g. imagemagick.
That’s what I would probably do since it’s more efficient and simpler. No need for a compilation step or an interpreter. No need to trust the (likely complex) webassembly runtime to be bug free.
Edit: most responses are being made under the assumption that seccomp is the same as seccomp-bpf. The two are different and designed for different use cases. For example it is not possible to run a wasm JIT entirely under seccomp but is possible under seccomp-bpf. Seccomp was specifically designed for the use case described in this article by Shopify. You can read more about the differences here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seccomp
Re: How Shopify Uses WebAssembly Outside of the Browser
#6What does this mean for Shopify merchants? Is it all just faster apps? I'm still at a loss that Shopify still does not have a subscriptions product. :/
Pro: You don't need server infrastructure to customise a Shopify flow.
Con: You need coders knowledgeable in WASM.
However, I could imagine that an ecosystem of "plugins" could emerge, i.e. ready-made WASM apps that merchants could plug into their stores.
There might be more security issues though, if the developer of the WASM and the merchant using it aren't the same party. I think it will be interesting to see how this will play out.
Then again, it might be sufficient to to code something in an LLVM-supported language of choice, then compile it to WASM and just hook it into Shopify, without needing to understand the WASM code that was generated. Good luck troubleshooting or debugging this though...
Re: How Shopify Uses WebAssembly Outside of the Browser
#7Technically you can accomplish the same thing using seccomp, I.e. the way most services run third party native code to process untrusted data, e.g. imagemagick. That’s what I would probably do since it’s more efficient and simpler. No need for a compilation step or an interpreter. No need to trust the (likely complex) webassembly runtime to be bug free. Edit: most responses are being made under the assumption that se…
I think WASM has the added benefit of being platform-independent - which is generally a good thing but can even be a security feature: With native code, even if run without privileges, you need to expose a lot of details about your hardware that malicious users could use to find vulnerabilities.
With WASM, the host can keep the actual hardware architecture and even the actual machine code that is generated a secret.
Re: How Shopify Uses WebAssembly Outside of the Browser
#8What does this mean for Shopify merchants? Is it all just faster apps? I'm still at a loss that Shopify still does not have a subscriptions product. :/
Pro: You don't need server infrastructure to customise a Shopify flow. Con: You need coders knowledgeable in WASM. However, I could imagine that an ecosystem of "plugins" could emerge, i.e. ready-made WASM apps that merchants could plug into their stores. There might be more security issues though, if the developer of the WASM and the merchant using it aren't the same party. I think it will be interesting to see how…
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Re: How Shopify Uses WebAssembly Outside of the Browser
#9Technically you can accomplish the same thing using seccomp, I.e. the way most services run third party native code to process untrusted data, e.g. imagemagick. That’s what I would probably do since it’s more efficient and simpler. No need for a compilation step or an interpreter. No need to trust the (likely complex) webassembly runtime to be bug free. Edit: most responses are being made under the assumption that se…
Shopify is already a known seccomp user (for running Ruby in the mruby VM), so I think there's no reason to assume the WebAssembly runtime is not in a seccomp jail too.
Re: How Shopify Uses WebAssembly Outside of the Browser
#10Technically you can accomplish the same thing using seccomp, I.e. the way most services run third party native code to process untrusted data, e.g. imagemagick. That’s what I would probably do since it’s more efficient and simpler. No need for a compilation step or an interpreter. No need to trust the (likely complex) webassembly runtime to be bug free. Edit: most responses are being made under the assumption that se…
I think WASM has the added benefit of being platform-independent - which is generally a good thing but can even be a security feature: With native code, even if run without privileges, you need to expose a lot of details about your hardware that malicious users could use to find vulnerabilities. With WASM, the host can keep the actual hardware architecture and even the actual machine code that is generated a secret.
Yeah but there’s a nearly 100% chance your server platform is x86 and in the case that it changes, it will be a gradual change in the long term.
While it’s nice to have the platform independence, it has nearly zero practical utility here.
If you’re making a security argument, using seccomp over a complex webassembly runtime reduces your attack surface.