Cannot register ts-node into sandboxed NodeVM instance due to TypeError: 'set' on proxy: trap returned falsish

[benjamincburns]

When I attempt to register ts-node into an instance of NodeVM with options.require.context = "sandbox", I observe the following error. I believe this is likely because ts-node is trying to modify some global state that the sandbox has made read only?

TypeError: 'set' on proxy: trap returned falsish for property 'Symbol(ts-node.register.instance)'
    at Object.register (/Users/bburns/projects/petshop/node_modules/ts-node/src/index.ts:586:29)
    at /Users/bburns/projects/petshop/node_modules/ts-node/register/index.js:1:78
    at BaseHandler.apply (/Users/bburns/projects/truffle/node_modules/vm2/lib/bridge.js:479:11)
    at NonStrictNodeVM.run (/Users/bburns/projects/truffle/node_modules/vm2/lib/nodevm.js:425:23)
    at NonStrictNodeVM.run (/Users/bburns/projects/truffle/packages/require/lib/index.ts:183:18)
    at DefaultResolver.loadJS (/Users/bburns/projects/truffle/node_modules/vm2/lib/resolver.js:203:7)
    at loadJS (/Users/bburns/projects/truffle/node_modules/vm2/lib/nodevm.js:248:46)
    at BaseHandler.apply (/Users/bburns/projects/truffle/node_modules/vm2/lib/bridge.js:479:11)
    at Module._extensions.<computed> (/Users/bburns/projects/truffle/node_modules/vm2/lib/setup-node-sandbox.js:144:48)
    at Proxy.requireImpl (/Users/bburns/projects/truffle/node_modules/vm2/lib/setup-node-sandbox.js:117:3)

Note that I'm using the NonStrictNodeVM workaround from #442.

[benjamincburns]

As a workaround I did something like the following (actual code differs, as I'm also working around some path issues).

Important security note: I'm not using sandbox mode for security purposes. I'm just using it to make sure that transitive dependencies of the script that I'm executing in the VM are loaded with the same global context as the script that I'm executing, rather than the host's global context.

const tsNodePath = resolveInUserScriptPath(); // function not included for brevity

const compiler = require(tsNodePath).create().compile;

// see #442 comments for implementation of NonStrictNodeVM
const vm = new NonStrictNodeVM({
  allowAsync: true,
  console: "inherit",
  require: {
    builtin: [ "*" ],
    context: "sandbox",
    external: true
  },
  sandbox: { /* globals go here */ },
  compiler
})

[XmiliaH]

This is likely caused by the ts-node module trying to write to properties from a builtin module which are exposed in the sandbox as read-only.

[benjamincburns]

Is there any way to allow some built-in properties to be settable?

[behnammodi]

I have the same problem, is there any update?