Deprecation/Removal: Local codejail

MoisesGonzalezS · March 11, 2026, 8:06pm

The ability of running sandboxes for coding problem locally as part of openedx-platform will be removed in favor of a new remote service.

More details are available in:

github.com/openedx/openedx-platform

[DEPR]: Local codejail

opened 07:52PM - 30 Apr 25 UTC

robrap

depr

### Proposal Date 2025-04-30 ### Target Ticket Acceptance Date TBD ### Earli…est Open edX Named Release Without This Functionality Ulmo - 2025-10 ### Rationale The capability of using codejail for problems with code execution is not going away. This DEPR is for removing the ability to run this locally as part of edx-platform, in favor of running remotely in a new codejail-service. Using the new service for code execution is more secure, most especially because if anyone were able to break out of the layers of security, they would not be executing code on the same box as the LMS, which has access to data which is important to keep secure. Keeping code execution in another service entirely also allows additional layers of security that would not be possible when colocated with the LMS, such as preventing all outbound network connections. ### Removal The local codejail allows unsafe execution (non-sandboxed) for configured courses. This functionality will likely not be carried over to the new remote service. The darklaunch feature, which enables one to choose between local and remote, is a good starting place to find all of the local codejail code that can be removed. See [this github search](https://github.com/search?q=repo%3Aopenedx%2Fedx-platform++%28runs-on+OR+os+OR+os_version%29+AND+%28ubuntu-20.04+OR+ubuntu-22.04+OR+ubuntu-24.04%29+language%3AYAML&type=code) for locations. ### Replacement The replacement is the new [codejail-service](https://github.com/openedx/codejail-service). Note: 2U/edX is running this in production. ### Deprecation The legacy local calls could be marked as deprecated when someone moves this ticket forward. ### Migration A darklaunch capability was added so that the new remote codejail-service could be tested and tuned in production without causing issues. Once all is well, edx-platform configuration an be updated to switch users to the new service. See https://docs.openedx.org/projects/edx-platform/en/latest/references/featuretoggles.html#featuretoggle-ENABLE_CODEJAIL_DARKLAUNCH ### Additional Info _No response_ ### Task List - [x] Complete readiness of new replacement codejail-service - [ ] Make codejail-service Tutor plugin - [ ] Duplicate requirements in new codejail-service. It currently uses this defined in edx-platform to avoid duplication. - [ ] Remove local capability for codejail, including current darklaunch feature. Note: there are ideas for future darklaunch features for Python upgrades, but that must be handled differently. - [ ] Consider whether this is the last remaining OS-specific functionality in edx-platform, and if we could update workflows to use `ubuntu-latest` like in this PR: https://github.com/edx/edx-platform/pull/75.

If case you have any question, please feel free to comment on the GitHub issue.

The deadline for acceptance is 2026-03-25T04:00:00Z

Please note that this deprecation does not affect Tutor users. Tutor never implemented local codejail and instead always used the remote service via GitHub - eduNEXT/tutor-contrib-codejail: Tutor plugin that enables execution of untrusted code in secure sandboxes using an external service based on the codejail library. · GitHub.

system · March 11, 2026, 8:11pm

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Deprecation/Removal: Local codejail

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