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Re:WebAssembly is more than the web by nayuki on Friday July 13, 2018 @11:03PM (#17528567)
While Java has its failings, sandboxing was not an afterthought. Java was designed from day one to be secure-able - with pointer safety, array index safety, the SecurityManager object, classloader security rules, signed applets, etc. (Whether Java actually achieved the security it claimed is a different discussion.)
Re:WebAssembly is more than the web by infogulch on Saturday July 14, 2018 @01:57AM (#17529055)
That's the thing though. Java's "safety" began and ended as a bullet point in a powerpoint presentation. Not for not trying, but because the API surface is so big and the VM so abstract that they made it impossible for themselves to actually deliver sandbox-level security. To compare, js is tiny, has had thousands of man-years poured into it's security, and its customers prioritize security above everything else, and there are still exploits found in every engine every year. Java's security surface area is enormous in comparison, it has a fraction of the man hours dedicated to sandboxing it, and many of it's customers don't even care if the sandboxing is airtight. You can read through the full webassembly spec in a couple hours.