New Dell Kace sandboxed FF (now also on x64)

Anyone tried (on x64)? http://www.kace.com/products/freetools/secure-browser/ seemed they brought out a new version in feb this year

 

Yeh i've been using it for a few months now on win7 x64. It works great and i haven't had any issues yet. It has a few handy features which give you control over wat processes can run and wat sites can be accessed. Its probably not as powerful as sandboxie or other similar software but its free and does the basics well.

 

I'm using it on 64-bit Windows XP. It works as advertised, but I would use Sandboxie instead if it was compatible with that OS.

Basic description: Sandbox for Firefox 3.6.13 with Adobe Reader and Flash plugin-ins included (I suppose pdf and flash based malware are among the biggest dangers when browsing the internets). You can reset it (empty the sandbox) any time, and it can keep your bookmarks in tact. I think you may be able to update firefox and then import your current setup to make a new installer (new reset point I assume), but I'm not sure - it seemed complicated.

The bad (why I prefer Sandboxie):
--Obviously Sandboxie works with most other apps, which is a huge plus, but it's also much smaller. Dell KACE Secure Browser takes up about 300-400 MB at the beginning, and quickly grows from that until you reset it. In my case it grew to nearly 700 MB before I hit reset and didn't show any leveling off at that point.
--If you update Firefox (to v3.6.15, for example) and hit reset, you lose the bookmarks (at least I did) and then you are back to FF v3.6.13 again.
--Plugins can be tough to add -- I was unable to add KeyScrambler.
--If you browse files on your local hard drive from Dell KACE FF (to look for a plugin, for example), it may copy some of the files you just browse into the FF sandbox ( = bloat).

The good: It's the best alternative to secure browsing with sandboxie that I know of, so if you cannot use Sanboxie or just don't want to, then this is it. Also, there was something on the site about customizing the installer, so maybe there's a way to update FF and add plugins to the base image.

 

Kees or Pajenn, have any of you guys given VMLite VirtualApps Studio a try? Its supposed to be a sandboxing type of program - whether its security oriented I don't know. Altiris SVS was a former app that did the same thing, but cannot stop delibrate malicious infiltration. If you guys could give it a spin and report back I'd appreciate that since its 32bit only.

I wanted to know how secure it is when compared to a steel champion like Sandboxie. Also wanted to know things like differences in speed, feature set etc.

 

VMlite announced a IE preconfiured freebie withVMlite (second quarter 2011), that would be a nice one to try

 

I looked on VMLite's site and read a brief explanation of VMLite VirtualApps Studio, but I didn't see a download link for a trial version. To me it sounds similar to VMware's ThinApp, which is a program to copy (or capture) installations into virtual containers (sandboxes). It's a very cool app if you learn to use it, but the learning part may take considerable effort and a VMware workstation or some other playground for the installs you intend to capture is necessary. You can use it to capture a Firefox installation for example, but I trust Dell KACE more than myself to build a 'secure' (sandboxed) browser. (The complication is deciding what parts of your real system the virtualized app can see and touch, and then how to confirm that it really is secure with no leaks).

I did try Symantec's Altiris SVS very briefly (long time ago) and it seemed to work, but I found it complicated and decided that leaning to use ThinApp would be the better bet (more popular, development more active, active forum available for support, ...).

 

VMLite VirtualApps Player is the one in direction of Sandboxing, VMLite VirtualApps Studio is for software vendors to deploy applications.

VMLite VirtualApps Player beats all competitions in terms of traping everything, it's the only software that traps installations too (to the best of my knowledge).

Yesterday, I played with Dell Secure Firefox a bit, it does not trap installs. If you open Dell Secure Firefox, then installs an app (e.g., google apps), the apps go to host. This indicates that it's very easy to escape the sandbox. any interprocess call to host apps will be escaping the "sandbox". To me this is not a good thing.

VMLite VirtualApps Player, on the ther hand, virtualizes inter process communications, so if you install some thing from sandboxed processes, the installation will occur inside the sanbox, too. This way, you can install most complicated apps to the sandbox (we actually call it an app virtual machine).

If you want to give an early test, you can send us an emial.

We will provide a free version soon.

 

Yes a preconfigured VMlite Player for IE9 or Chrome ***** waiting 4 it ***** (removed preinstalled windows x64 on laptop for a windows 7 ultimate x32 version)

 

Chrome can be bundled, but IE9 may violate Microsoft license if bundled. You can install IE9 on host, then launch it from VMLite Player and get sandboxed. VMLite Player has its own Start Menu, where you can launch apps already installed, or those apps only installed in vm.

You can also run multiple instances of those singleton apps, for example, you should be able to run multiple copies of MSN, with each running from a different vm.

 

On our windows7 ultimate I always use the safe-admin setup (basically all gpedit enhancements, locked down IE9, ony allow signed drivers and signed programs to elevate,deny execute user space and deny download executables through 1806 trick, plus EMET2 and Windows FW two way). Because you cant use software restriction as basic user anymore on Windows7 (vista business was better in this respect), I have one running ApppGuard and the other using Spyshelter Premium (using only its restricted option and some memory based system protection) as an extra shield. In this way (with AppGuard and Spyshelter on different PC's) the threat gates program (WMP, Mail and Browser) are allways contained in sort of restricted user environment.

I only use HitmanPro for on-demand and I would love a rock solid virtualised (VMLite player) and internally sandboxed (Chrome) browser for playing around with malware. So count me in on the Chrome bundles version.

Since your announcement I am checking your communication. I really think is very nice enhancement of security when you make this available as freeware.

 

This and the description at your website sounds great, VirtualApps Player
seems like a very nice sandbox and worth trying when available.


Bo

 

Update: Recently I've had problems with Kace Dell Secure Browser on my 64-bit Windows XP system, in particular, it fails to update to version Firefox 4, and has started to hung frequently since I tried the update. Is anyone else having this problem.

In any case, I hope they update the browser.