go-launcher

A simple Go program for launching programs from a fixed configuration. This program replaces Gradle-generated Bash launch scripts which are susceptible to attacks via injection of environment variables of the form JAVA_OPTS='$(rm -rf /)'.

The launcher accepts as configuration two YAML files as follows:

# StaticLauncherConfig - java version
# REQUIRED - The type of configuration, must be the string "java"
configType: java
# REQUIRED - The version of the configuration format, must be the integer 1
configVersion: 1
# REQUIRED - The main class to be run
mainClass: my.package.Main
# OPTIONAL - Path to the JRE, defaults to the JAVA_HOME environment variable if unset
javaHome: javaHome
# REQUIRED - The classpath entries; the final classpath is the ':'-concatenated list in the given order
classpath:
  - ./foo.jar
# OPTIONAL - Environment Variables to be set in the environment (Note: cannot be referenced on args list)
env:
  CUSTOM_VAR: CUSTOM_VALUE
# OPTIONAL - JVM options to be passed to the java command
jvmOpts:
  - '-Xmx1g'
# OPTIONAL - Arguments passed to the main method of the main class
args:
  - arg1

# StaticLauncherConfig - executable version
# REQUIRED - The type of configuration, must be the string "executable"
configType: java
# REQUIRED - The version of the configuration format, must be the integer 1
configVersion: 1
# OPTIONAL - Environment Variables to be set in the environment (Note: cannot be referenced on args list)
env:
  CUSTOM_VAR: CUSTOM_VALUE
# REQUIRED - The full path to the executable file, limited to whitelisted values (java, postgres, influxd, grafana-server)
executable: "{{CWD}}/service/bin/postgres"
# OPTIONAL - Arguments passed to the main method of the excutable or main class
args:
  - arg1

# CustomLauncherConfig
# REQUIRED - The type of configuration, must be the string "java" or "executable"
configType: java
# REQUIRED - The version of the configuration format, must be the integer 1
configVersion: 1
# OPTIONAL - Environment Variables to be set in the environment, will override defaults in static config (Note: cannot be referenced on args list)
env:
  CUSTOM_VAR: CUSTOM_VALUE
  CUSTOM_PATH: '{{CWD}}/some/path'
# Additional JVM options to be passed to the java command, will override defaults in static config. Ignored if configType is "executable"
jvmOpts:
  - '-Xmx2g'

The launcher is invoked as:

go-launcher [<path to StaticLauncherConfig> [<path to CustomLauncherConfig>]]

where the static configuration file defaults to ./launcher-static.yml and the custom configuration file defaults to ./launcher-custom.yml. It assembles the configuration options and executes the following command (where <static.xyz> and <custom.xyz> refer to the options from the two configuration files, respectively):

<javaHome>/bin/java \
  <static.jvmOpts> \
  <custom.jvmOpts> \
  -classpath <classpath entries> \
  <static.mainClass> \
  <static.args>

Note that the custom jvmOpts appear after the static jvmOpts and thus typically take precendence; the exact behaviour may depend on the Java distribution.

env block, both in static and custom configuration, supports restricted set of automatic expansions for values assigned to environment variables. Variables are expanded if they are surrounded with {{ and }} as shown above for CUSTOM_PATH. The following fixed expansions are supported:

• {{CWD}}: The current working directory of the user which executed this process

Expansions are only performed on the values. No expansions are performed on the keys. Note that the JAVA_HOME environment cannot be overwritten with this mechanism; use the javaHome mechanism in StaticLauncherConfig instead.

License

This repository is made available under the Apache 2.0 License.