Add --allow-env flag to Permission Model for restricting environment variable access #62424

What is the problem this feature will solve?

The Node.js Permission Model (stable as of v23.5.0) allows restricting access to the filesystem, network, child processes, and worker threads — but there is currently no way to restrict a process's access to environment variables.

This is a growing practical security concern. When running third-party code — such as MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers, CLI tools via npx, or untrusted npm packages — the process inherits the full environment of the parent shell, which often contains sensitive secrets:

OPENAI_API_KEY=sk-...
DATABASE_URL=postgres://...
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=...
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=sk-ant-...

Context: https://x.com/hnykda/status/2036414330267193815

Any package you run can silently exfiltrate these via process.env with no indication to the user.

What is the feature you are proposing to solve the problem?

Add an --allow-env flag to the Permission Model, mirroring Deno's implementation:

# Block all env var access
node --permission script.js

# Allow all env vars
node --permission --allow-env script.js

# Allow only specific env vars
node --permission --allow-env=PORT,NODE_ENV script.js

Attempts to read a disallowed variable via process.env would throw ERR_ACCESS_DENIED, consistent with other permission violations.

Runtime checking would be available via:

process.permission.has('env');
process.permission.has('env', 'PORT');

What alternatives have you considered?

The rise of agentic AI tooling (MCP servers, AI CLI agents, etc.) means developers are increasingly running third-party Node.js processes inside their development environments, where shells are pre-loaded with sensitive credentials. This is a meaningful and growing attack surface.

Deno has had this since v1.9. The prior discussion in nodejs/security-wg#993 raised concerns about complexity, but the threat model has materially changed since 2023.

Prior Art

• Deno: --allow-env / --allow-env=VAR1,VAR2
• Permission - Environment variables security-wg#993 (previous discussion, closed without resolution)