System for running potentially malicious code

A method for servicing a request on a server to render a document from a file, the method comprising:

• receiving a request for the file;
• processing the request for the file using an application manager process, the application manager process obtaining a first file handle for the file;
• creating a second file handle for the file, the second file handle being a duplicate of the first file handle, the second file handle having restricted access to memory of the server;
• providing the second file handle to an application host process, wherein file data is written to the second file handle;
• activating the application host process from a pool of available processes, the activation of the application host process being controlled by the application manager process, running one or more legacy applications on one or more of the application host processes, each of the one or more legacy applications running in a separate application host process, the available processes in the pool of available processes having each been created with a unique logon identifier, the unique logon identifier permitting the application host process to communicate only with the application manager process;
• executing an application using the application host process to render the document from the requested file, the one or more legacy applications running in the application host process;
• monitoring the application host process using the application manager process;
• detecting when the application host process has abnormally terminated;
• and
• activating a new application host process when an abnormal termination is detected.

A system for running application code on a web server, the system comprising:

• a plurality of application host processes;
• and
• an application manager process, the application manager process obtaining a first file handle for a file, creating a second file handle for the file, the second file handle being a duplicate of the first file handle, the second file handle having restricted access to memory of the web server, the application manager process further comprising:
• an application host process creation module programmed to create a pool of application host processes and to activate an application host process when required, providing the second file handle to the application host process, wherein file data is written to the second file handle, running one or more legacy applications on one or more of the application host processes, each of the one or more legacy applications running in a separate application host process, the application host process creation module configured to restrict inter-process communication for the pool of application host processes, each application host process in the pool of application host processes prevented from communicating with any other application host process in the pool of application host processes;
• an application host process monitor module programmed to monitor attributes of the application host processes and terminate a first application host process when attributes of the first application host process exceed a predetermined limit and activate a new application host process when the first application host process is terminated;
• and
• a data marshal module programmed to marshal data between the file and an application host process, the data marshal module marshaling data via a file handle, the file handle having restricted access to the memory and disk of the web server;
• wherein each of the plurality of application host processes has a unique logon identifier, the unique logon identifier permitting an application host process to communicate only with the application manager process.