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Developer runs browser automation in disposable VMs to isolate security and kernel conflicts

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A developer built a browser automation system that runs inside disposable virtual machines launched on demand and destroyed after each job, hosted on a Raspberry Pi rather than a GPU machine to avoid competing for memory. The VM approach was originally motivated by a kernel page-size mismatch between Chromium's 4 KB expectation and the Pi's 16 KB kernel, since patching the host kernel broke Ethernet and took down the local DNS. Beyond the technical fix, the VM boundary also provides a security layer, containing any browser-level exploit within the guest and preventing it from affecting the host system. However, since NAT alone does not block a compromised guest from reaching the local network, a host-side firewall rule tied to the guest process's user ID is used to deny its traffic access to LAN address ranges. Separate VM profiles are maintained for anonymous and authenticated browsing sessions to avoid triggering session-security heuristics that flag accounts alternating between a home IP and a VPN exit.

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Developer runs browser automation in disposable VMs to isolate security and kernel conflicts · ShortSingh