Which version of sandboxie should I use?...

Hi, I need some advice from you.

Currently I'm still using the "old version" Sandboxie 3.76, that works wonderfully on my system with windows7-Pro 64bit-SP1, but now I'm undecided if to upgrade to version 4 or not!??!....
In fact, I remember that the first releases of version 4 had some bugs, and many users had issues and malfunctions.

So now I need to know three very important things for me:
1) Are fixed the initial problems of Sandboxie vers.4??
2) It's advantageous to upgrade to vers.4? ....the version 4 is more secure than ver.3.76?
3) Eventually, which release is better: the latest release of his developer Tzuk (4.08 ) or the latest release by Invincea (4.14)??

Thanks in advance to anyone who will give me advice and..... Happy New Year to all!!!

 

The only issues I've ever had with any version of SBIE was bumping heads with Avast once in a while. Other than than, I've always ran the latest release version. I'm not a fan of running security software much out of date. IMO, too many changes in malware and bug fixes in the programs to lag too far behind...

 

Hi Zapco, I think its best to upgrade. Some users who remain with 3.76 do it because they have a program that dont run under Sandboxie version 4. But I can tell you, in my case, every program that I want to run sandboxed (XP and W7 32 bits), I am able to. Programs that are popular like major antiviruses, browsers, PDF readers, Flash, Office programs, should work fine with Sandboxie version 4.

Not all is perfect in Version 4. I can tell that a couple of the programs that I run sandboxed, ran a little smoother in 3.76. But in my view, that's no reason to keep using an old version that is not as secure as the latest version. You can bet, if using version 4 made things uncomfortable, I would not be using Version 4. All things that I do sandboxed are done naturally, smooth, sandboxes open and close fast. No issue.

The changes from version 3 to version 4, made Sandboxie more secure. There were things that programs in the sandbox could do in version 3 that now they cant because the sandbox itself is more restricted. The chances of programs running in the sandbox causing damage to our system is lesser in Version 4.

Also, look at the second change in Version 4.10.
http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?VersionChanges#v_4_10

And, a few months ago....

http://forums.sandboxie.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=19407&p=102967#p102897

You can handle that particular vulnerability in 3.76 by using Drop rights or disabling the service WinRM but version 4 does it without you having to disable anything. I bet there are other fixes that get fixed without us getting to know anything about it. So, do the upgrade. You can do it over the top. If for some reason you don't like Version 4, you can always downgrade by running the 3.76 installer over the top.

Bo

 

Well, everyone's system is different so it means that "your results may vary". But on my Win7 64-bit system which I believe is complicated due to so many security programs, Online Armor, Appguard, EXE Radar Pro, BitDefender Free, Shadow Defender, the latest version, Sandboxie 4.14, is working smooth as silk.

Acadia

 

For the most part, Avast and Sandboxie get along very well. But every once in a while, an upgrade in versions of either program might break things down. I seen that happen a few times. But Avast is a popular program, used by many Sandboxie users. So, when things break down between Avast and Sandboxie, the issue usually gets fixed real quick. This thing about compatibility issues is funny how it works sometimes.

I remember, when Firefox 27 came out, at about the same time, Avast released an upgrade. That mix, broke things down with Sandboxie. A few days after people stated reporting the issue, things got fixed but it was tough for Invincea to figure.

Bo

 

Many thanks for the quick answers!

I fully agree that the latest version of a software is generally more secure than the previous ...... but not always work best!
However, Bo can you confirm that the ver.4 is natively compatible with 64bit systems? ...... and that the famous "protection experimental 64bit" is no longer needed?
If so then I think I will upgrade to version 4.

But now I have to decide if to install the latest release by Tzuk (v.4.0, or the most recent release of the new owner Invincea(v.4.14)
personally I have more confidence of the great Tzuk !! ...... and however I think there are not big differences between the 4:08 and 4:14 releases........

Hello and HAPPY NEW YEAR from Italy!!!

 

Zapco, the Experimental protection is gone. Read the first couple of sentences in the link below. My computers are 32 bits. But most of my friends computers for who I install Sandboxie are 64 bits. None of them run as many programs sandboxed as I do but all related to SBIE seems well when I am installing and testing Sandboxie in 64 bits computers. Greetings from Central America.
http://www.sandboxie.com/?ExperimentalProtection

Bo

 

I love 3.76 x86 and see no reason to change. None of the security improvements made since are relevant to me because of surface I've eliminated, other layers, etc... So I use what works best, and that version is the most responsive and stable yet to my experience. Until/unless given compelling reason to change I'm sticking with it.

Also I thought that 4.6 was the last version Tzuk made.

 

The latest version, that is not beta, is 4.14. Also, Tzuk is, unfortunately, no longer around. Although most would agree that the new team is continuing his excellence.
Acadia

 

I ran v. 3.76 for quite a while also, but decided to update to version 4. Both versions ran great with my security
setup although that setup changes ocassionally , but if SBIE 4 versions keep working well then I'll stay with it.

In Sandboxie annoucements Tzuk is listed under version 4.06 while Curt@invincea
is listed under version 4.08.
Version 4.06 was released on October 16, 2013 and version 4.08 was released on January
19, 2014. Tzuk announced on Dec.17, 2013 was departing from Sandboxie in about 6 Weeks.

 

4.15.6 Beta

 

v4 always was under control of invicea. it never was said but it is.
nevertheless security software should be uptodate - always.
and avast is truly pain in ass while using sandboxie or firefox - e.g. latest ssl issues
my recommendation is same as above - latest v4 (beta!) run fine on win7/8

 

I've had few, unimportant issues running 4.xx under W7x64.

The thing I'm very pleased with is the support for modern compilation and C++ libraries, which I think make the program itself less vulnerable. And I'm as pleased as can be at the Invincea support of the product thus far.

The only cloud on the horizon for me is that of Office 2013 C2R App-V incompatibility, but then that's why I'm sticking with Office 2010, and would shift to something else other than a non-sandboxable Office 2013. It's extremely poor that MS has focussed on their licencing and distribution issues with App-V rather than providing the equivalent of modern browser sandboxing to the Office apps. The requirement is the same in practice.

 

On a 32-bit (WinXP) system would v4.xx offer any better security than v3.76? If yes, how so?

Happy New Year,
Cruise

 

Hi Cruise, read my reply in post #3. Also, in version 4.14, regarding security, I think this is a good change.

"ASLR is now enabled for SbieDll.dll 32 bit (64 bit will come later)."
http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?VersionChanges#v_4_14

I recommend you go for 4.15.6. Works great for me in XP and W7 32 bits.
http://forums.sandboxie.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=19837

Bo

 

Mmmhh......honestly I have strong doubts about this...
In fact, looking at the size of the Sandboxie 64bit installer, it may be noted that until the release 4.08 is just 1.3-1.4mb, while with
the release 4.10 and next, the size has increased to about 3.6MB!
Moreover, even the digital signature (right click -->properties -->digital signatures) has changed since the release 4:10....In fact, until the
4:08 release the name of the signer was "Sandboxie LTD", while from release 4:10 onwards was replaced by the new signer "Invincea Inc."
See for yourself and you'll see that it is so!

 

This change in Version 4.10 is the reason for that

"Sandboxie is now built under Visual Studio 2010 and uses newer versions of the Microsoft libraries".
http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?VersionChanges#v_4_10

Bo

 

Hi Bo,

I was under the impression that the main reason Tzuk developed v4 was because v3.76 would not properly support Windows' 64-bit architecture.

In any case, the reason I'm interested in v3.76 is that I read (somewhere) that v4 is more demanding on system resources than v3. You see, several months ago I gave my legacy 32-bit WinXP laptop (1.8GHz Pent.M, 1GB RAM, 40GB HDD) to my son. We all know that XP is much more vulnerable to infections than subsequent versions of Windows, so I want to protect my son's laptop without placing any more demand then I have to on its very limited resources.

Regards & Happy New Year,
Cruise

 

Cruise, read this thread about Version 4.
http://forums.sandboxie.com/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=38&t=14454

About Sandboxie in XP. As you might know, one of my computers is XP. My experience over the years using Sandboxie in that computer has always being pleasant, version 3 or 4. I have 2GB RAM but even when I had only 1, all things related to SBIE are always great.

Using Version 4, CPU usage is always going to show a nice 0% and RAM at about 20MB. Thats pretty much exactly the same as in Version 3. I see or feel no difference between versions regarding system resources usage at all.

Bo

 

Bo, I will follow your advice. This may be a little OT, but with the desire to minimize the demands of security software on the laptop's resources and that my son is a teenager who may visit some of the 'darker' places on the internet, do you think that he will be ok with just SBIE?

 

If your son was you or me, its easy to do security with only SBIE. For your son, I think you should find a simple antivirus to run along SBIE. The simplest, the better. I would recommend MSE but unfortunately it doesn't work anymore in XP.

And get in his mind to be very very careful regarding downloads that are recovered and executed out of the sandbox. If he doesn't do any of that or he learns to be careful about what he executes unsandboxed, he would be OK with Sandboxie on its own.

Cruise, if your son is willing NOT to do any recoveries, you could set Sandboxie up so nothing can be recovered automatically or manually by using the UI or SBIE control.

Bo

 

Bo, unfortunately my job will often take me on the road so I'm not always here to check-in on him. I've installed Bitdefender Free (a very light AV) along with Sandboxie Free. I removed the IE icon from his desktop and told him to click on Sandboxie whenever he wants to surf the net. He does have to dowload files for school-work as well as for entertainment, so hopefully BD will protect him there. Let's see how that goes...

Cruise

 

BitDefender free sounds good, Cruise. In another thread, Acadia said that BD free is working good for him along Sandboxie.

Bo

 

Correct. Been using BD Free for almost two years now, never a problem with SB.
Acadia

 

Acadia, thanks for confirming. I put BD-Free on my son's XP laptop along with SBIE yesterday and resource consumption doesn't seem to be a problem. So far the only problem I noticed with BD-Free was that it quarantined a file that for sure is a FP and I can't restore it (clicking BD's quarantine-restore icon doesn't even seem to work)!

Cruise