Sandbox and 64 Bit?

[???]

Does anyone know of a sandbox program that will work with 64 bit OS? Kaspersky Internet Security supplies one that is unusable, as is Sandboxie.

[therube]

I thought that due to limitations imposed by MS, that Sandboxie would not & will never work in x64?

VirtualBox

[GµårÐïåñ]

You may have hardware level virtualization and sandboxing available in x64 but few software solutions will work on it, due to the way it has to post non-64 data, in Windows its WOW and on other OS you have similar conduits, which are basically emulators. Sandboxing an emulated environment tends to get very icky in code. Still, there might be some that will try to work around it with some rigging.

[Tom T.]

I thought that due to limitations imposed by MS, that Sandboxie would not & will never work in x64?

VirtualBox

VirtualBox is a general-purpose full virtualizer for x86 hardware.

OP was looking for x64 hw.

VMWare Player apparently supports 64-bit Windows 7 as of build 3.0, released 27 Oct 2009.
http://www.vmware.com/support/player30/ ... ayer3.html

[GµårÐïåñ]

Virtual Machines are not exactly sandboxes and CAN and often do communicate with the network they are located on (depending on configuration) and the information is saved each time so no dumping temporary data, so the sandbox effect is very limited and only cosmetic at best.

[Tom T.]

Virtual Machines are not exactly sandboxes and CAN and often do communicate with the network they are located on (depending on configuration) and the information is saved each time so no dumping temporary data, so the sandbox effect is very limited and only cosmetic at best.

Brother, I must be misinterpreting something from http://www.vmware.com/products/player/:

create isolated virtual machines to safely test new software and surf the Web.

Could you not *choose* to empty the VMPlayer each time you close it or the browser, as you can do for Sandboxie?

Thank you for your help and explanations as always.

[computerfreaker]

Virtual Machines are not exactly sandboxes and CAN and often do communicate with the network they are located on (depending on configuration) and the information is saved each time so no dumping temporary data, so the sandbox effect is very limited and only cosmetic at best.

Brother, I must be misinterpreting something from http://www.vmware.com/products/player/:

create isolated virtual machines to safely test new software and surf the Web.

Could you not *choose* to empty the VMPlayer each time you close it or the browser, as you can do for Sandboxie?

Thank you for your help and explanations as always.

Virtual Machines can be locked down - i.e. sandbox mode - but they can also be set up to access the 'net, the local hard drive, etc. I know from this personal experience, as I used to have VMWare Server - I had it set up with access to my HDD, and I occasionally accessed the Internet in the VM as well.

You can't just "empty" the VM - you have to delete it and rebuild it, or revert it to an earlier snapshot. Either way's kind of a pain...

[Tom T.]

Virtual Machines can be locked down - i.e. sandbox mode - but they can also be set up to access the 'net, the local hard drive, etc. I know from this personal experience, as I used to have VMWare Server - I had it set up with access to my HDD, and I occasionally accessed the Internet in the VM as well.

You can't just "empty" the VM - you have to delete it and rebuild it, or revert it to an earlier snapshot. Either way's kind of a pain...

Oops, I needed to dig a little deeper into VM's site. For obvious reasons, the freeware isn't as easy to find as the expensiveware. Perhaps what I should have pointed to was this:
http://www.vmware.com/appliances/directory/80

The Browser Appliance allows users to securely browse the Internet using Mozilla Firefox. Run the Browser Appliance with VMware Player to:

* Protect Against Adware and Spyware: Users protect their PCs against adware, spyware and other malware while browsing the Internet with Firefox in a virtual machine. The Browser Appliance leverages virtual machine isolation capabilities to prevent malware downloaded in the browser from propagating to the normal desktop.
* Safeguard Personal Information: The Browser Appliance can be configured to automatically reset itself after each use so personal information is never stored permanently.

The only hitch is that it says

Operating System: Ubuntu 5.10

So without looking deeper into the docs, it's not immediately apparent if you have to be running Ubuntu, or if you could run it on, say, Windows, and it creates a virtual Ubuntu in which it runs a sandboxed Firefox. Anyone who is interested in this solution might try d/l this.

Still larger and apparently a little more complex than Sandboxie, but seems to accomplish the same purpose, and at no cost. However, it is supplied by a third-party developer, not by VMWare itself. But they put their name on it and distribute it through their web site.

Also much bulkier -- 258 MB d/l (possibly larger when installed) vs 3 MB for SB. But it seems like another option, FWIW, and if it indeed will create its virtual Ubuntu on any host OS, then there's your x64 compatibility.

[therube]

Never say never.
If all goes well, there may just be an x64 Sandboxie.

Resuming support for 64-bit Sandboxie

I have reconsidered my position and decided that I should stop fighting windmills.

I've held out so far because it was important for me to try to get a particular
message out. I appreciate those of you who chose to listen, but realistically,
I have to admit that the world at large does not care much for my message.

So I give up, and thus, without further ado:

http://www.sandboxie.com/phpbb/viewtopic.php?t=6842

Supported 64-bit Windows operating systems:
o Windows Vista with Service Pack 1 or later
o Windows 7.

The post below discusses some related technical details.

[therube]

Version 3.44

Released on 3 February 2010.

These are the changes to Sandboxie since version 3.42.

* Full support for 64-bit Windows.
o Single installation EXE contains both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of Sandboxie.

* Improved Disable Forced Programs mode.
o Hold Ctrl+Shift while invoking the right-click Run Sandboxed command on a program that is forced, to run the program outside the supervision of Sandboxie.
o When Disable Forced Programs is used to start some forced program X outside the supervision of Sandboxie, then any other forced programs started by that program X will also start outside the supervision of Sandboxie.

* Improved support for User Account Control (UAC) elevation by sandboxed programs.
o No longer requires Sandboxie Control to be running.
o Pop-up window displays information about the elevating program.

* Fixed incompatibility with Software Restriction Policies (SRP) on Windows 7.

* Windows Explorer running under Sandboxie displays current folder in title.

* Prevent Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome browsers from updating in the sandbox.
o Message SBIE2191 will be displayed.

* Support for installing extensions into Google Chrome.

* Support for ICMP (ping) operations by sandboxed programs in Windows Vista and Windows 7.

* Improved compatibility with third-party security software: a2 Anti Malware.

* Improved compatibility with other third-party software: Macro Express, LinkStash, Bing Toolbar.

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?Vers ... ges#v_3_44