Security Concerns

There are many important things to be concerned about when creating a system like this, and security is one of them. From a systems administration point of view, the following things must be considered.

Allowing any user to upload and run any executable is TERRIFYING. This will require either auditing uploaded programs (and requiring uploaded programs to be sent in the form of source code to be compiled in-house), or carefully making sure that only trusted users can get in. It is painfully easy to write a script to forkbomb the server down or ping flood another server on the CS network, both potentially devastating to the project. Mistakes in good faith are equally threatening.

HTTPS must be supported. It must be used for login to prevent passwords from being transmitted in plaintext.