Seccomp (short for secure computing mode) is a useful feature provided by the Linux kernel since 2.6.12. It is used to limit the system calls a process can make. Seccomp has been implemented by numerous projects such as Docker, Android, OpenSSH and Firefox to name a few.

In this blog post, I am going to show you how you can take advantage of this Golang security feature by implementing your own seccomp filters, at runtime, for a Go binary on your Dyno.

What is Seccomp?

Seccomp gives developers control over the system calls a process can make. System calls are how processes request services from the Linux kernel. If a Golang binary wants to open a file, it sends a syscall to the kernel—...

Go-kit is a distributed programming toolkit for building microservices. It solves the common problems encountered while building distributed systems, so you can focus on your business logic. This article starts with a bit of background on microservices, then guidance on how to get started with Go-kit, including instructions on getting a basic service up and running on Heroku.

A Brief Intro to Microservices

Traditionally, web applications are built using a monolithic approach where the entire application is built, designed, deployed and maintained as a single unit. When working with a monolithic application various problems can arise over time: it’s easy for abstractions to leak across...

Editor's note: This is a cross post from Blake Gentry, an engineer at Heroku.

This is a post about the recently announced Heroku Platform API JSON Schema and how I used that schema to write an auto-generated Go client for the API.

Heroku's API team has spent a large part of the past year designing a new version of the platform API. While this is the 3rd incarnation of the API, neither of the two previous versions were publicly documented. In fact, the only documentation on the old APIs that was ever published is the source code of the Heroku Rubygem, which powers the Heroku Toolbelt. That worked fairly well at the time for Heroku's Ruby-centric audience, but it was never...