Sandboxie Acquired by Invincea

Discussion in 'sandboxing & virtualization' started by ad18, Dec 16, 2013.

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  1. bo elam

    bo elam Registered Member

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    Hi guest. To protect the guilty guy I was thinking about when I wrote that post, I rather not mention it here. But if you really want to know, send me a pm here and I ll give you the link to one of his recent posts were he mentions two pieces of software that historically have not worked with SBIE. :)

    Bo
     
  2. bo elam

    bo elam Registered Member

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    Yes, choices choices, nothing better than having choices. If there were no choices, life would be gray, everyone would look the same and dress the same and think the same. It would be boring and dull.

    And I agree. Sandboxie fits my needs like a glove. Even though is easy to see the potential usefulness of a VM, personally, I have no use for a VM. Never even thought about installing one.

    Bo
     
  3. Beyonder

    Beyonder Registered Member

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  4. imdb

    imdb Registered Member

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    exactly. and a vm is one of those choices, and a great one. because it gives you an almost infinite flexibility to use your computer the way you want and like. no platform restrictions, no sw update issues, no container limitations, no virtualization method limitations, no holes, no compatibility related installation issues. the limits of your host os is the only limit to what you can do. you want to undo all the changes you make, get rid of the nasty stuff sneaked through or start from scratch? just reboot your vm with one click and voila, you got it.

    you never know what it's like unless you give it a try, right? you'd never have an idea how great piece of sw sbie is had you never tried it, wouldn't you? ;)
     
  5. Beyonder

    Beyonder Registered Member

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    I've recently started using Windows Sandbox and when they change it so changes aren't lost on startup, I think it might be a great hit. Plus points if they add the ability to show the Windows Sandbox programs on the host, like with Virtualbox on Windows.
     
  6. bo elam

    bo elam Registered Member

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    If I compare using Sandoxie Vs a VM, with the pluses on one side and the minuses on the other, for my case use, Sandboxie out weights the VM 10 to 0 (I am being serious regarding the score). Greetings.

    Bo
     
  7. XenMan

    XenMan Registered Member

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    Sorry, this is totally misleading, there are massive performance hits and limited access to hardware with VMs.

    I'm a VM user for my security set up for basic internet access, and it easier than Sandboxie which has annoyed me one too many times. But for gaming and multimedia use on new machines a VM will not cut it, just as Sandboxie has its limitations with certain programs.
     
  8. Peter2150

    Peter2150 Global Moderator

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    I use VM'ss myself, but I have Sandboxie on them as well as on the hosts.
     
  9. imdb

    imdb Registered Member

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    huh? using vm for gaming purposes? that'd be pointless unless you have a very powerful / competent rig, because the host os must inherently share the cpu, gpu and memory resources with the guest os. a vm is much more suitable and handy and is best for testing/trying new os or sw, mw testing, safe & secure computer/online practices (isolation/virtualization), developing new sw, hw benchmarking.
     
  10. XenMan

    XenMan Registered Member

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    I think we are on two very different subjects here, and the point has been lost. Others hopefully get the point of VM limitations for isolation.
     
  11. imdb

    imdb Registered Member

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    i don't think you know how vm's work. vm's give you the best isolation you can get if it's host isolation from vm you're referring to. and if what you mean is isolation of multiple vm's from one another, that's not a problem either.
     
  12. XenMan

    XenMan Registered Member

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    And the spiral continues, I knew there was a reason I don't go on forums anymore...For the rest, "limitations (on performance and functionality) for isolation (of certain programs).
     
  13. Fizbin

    Fizbin Registered Member

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  14. guest

    guest Guest

    First, you don't use a VM on a low-end rig, so if you have a powerful one, performance impact will be very limited.
    For example, VirtualBox works very fine on my i5 with 6gb of ram...

    About isolation, I can't see better mechanism than a VM.
    Now if we compare VM vs Sandboxes for convenience and skill required to set up them, it is another topic.

    It is not for nothing than companies servers are mostly VMs and the most secured OS (aka Linux Qubes) function via multiple VMs, launched applications run in their own VMs

    Im really a fan of sandboxes like Sandboxie or ReHIPS, but to be honest if I had a very powerful rig like i7 + 32gb ram, then VMs would be my first choice over sandboxes, because I will have more flexibility and way more options.
    For example, I won't test malware on a sandbox.

    Using analogies, For me sandboxes are safety nets in case unexpected things happens, compared to VMs which are secured testing laboratories.
     
  15. guest

    guest Guest

  16. XenMan

    XenMan Registered Member

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    The point has been lost, and we are off topic, but basically you have three options.

    One is a container like Comodo which you can say is 'contained', then you have Sandboxie which has functional holes in it to make it usable. Then you have VMs which are contained, or with holes for shared folders, that are easy to back up and restore.

    Ignoring the effort in setting up, the three are similar in function but different in the experience. I used Sandboxie for 8 years, before the endless errors and compatibility issues with Chrome started. But when it works, it is great. Comodo and others of its type are of the 'use and dispose contents' variety which can be a pain with emails and setting up browsers. VMs are the best as you can store your data on a shared drive, make changes easily, as well as restore and store those changes with snapshots. My 8 year old i7 laptop has no problems with basic functions in Virtual Box.

    The only issue with VMs is that they are only good for core risks such as email, browsing and torrenting, whereas Sandboxie can run most things if you are of the paranoid persuasion.

    Or you can just not care anymore and not live a life in fear with the VM or Sandboxing just for internet activities to save the time of having to restore an image if your favorite gay midgets with mustaches porn site now has malware in the links.
     
  17. guest

    guest Guest

    My 3 uses of my VM:
    1- testing environment (malware, apps, etc.. )
    2- hardened and secured banking/shopping environment.
    3- dark webbing (torrent, darkweb sites, etc...)

    Where my sandbox apps were for regular surfing.
     
  18. imdb

    imdb Registered Member

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    +1.
    these and for me 4- pushing the limits and exploring every little detail of a newly released os to get to know it as much as possible.
     
  19. Fizbin

    Fizbin Registered Member

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    I have found an interesting bug with Sandboxie 5.30 (probably the other versions too). I have noticed that Youtube cookies are being passed from a sandboxed browser to the normal browser. I have tested this with both Chrome and Firefox on Windows 8.1 and Windows 10. Everything is UNCHECKED under Applications/Web Browser. That includes the phishing database. I am also not logged into Google.

    You need to do the following to confirm this... Go to normal Chrome or Firefox and delete all cookies for Youtube. Then go to youtube.com so it creates new cookies. Close YT (or refresh) and now it should be a clean slate as far as your recommended videos are concerned. (You should see a lot of stuff that is trending). Now open your sandboxed browser and go to YT. You should see pretty much the same thumbnails. Now type in something that is not normally on YT's default page. I typed in South Park. Then open 10 or so other South Park videos that show up in the right hand column. Just enough so YT's main page is now showing some South Park videos. (You'll probably see Family Guy and other cartoons as well). Now delete your sandbox and open your normal browser and go to YT. (If it's already open then refresh YT). You will now see these cartoon videos on the main page.

    Other aspects of YT are not passed along, like viewer mode, dark mode, etc. Only recommended videos.
     
  20. stapp

    stapp Global Moderator

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    I wonder if the Google Privacy Reminder that you see every so often on the browser main page has anything to do with this.
    If you select Review Now and then scroll down to Edit Youtube Settings there are options there to turn off (they are on by default)
    You would have to do this outside of Sandboxie and each time they bring up the Privacy Review.
     
  21. Freki123

    Freki123 Registered Member

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    For me youtube is always random stuff that doesn't interest me as recommendations (not stuff I watched/searched for). But I always watched it sandboxed not logged in.
    For the privacy reminder either they are so rare that i totally forgot them or I never saw one. (Adguard desktop version, umatrix, canvasblocker as only addons)
    At least that my experience till now.
     
  22. bo elam

    bo elam Registered Member

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    Hi Fizbin. If cookies were getting out of the sandbox without me allowing them to be saved outside the sandbox, I would know and would have seen it before. It doesn't happen.

    Let me show you the best way I can, proof that cookies are not escaping the sandbox :).

    I dont use Chrome so I can only show you this with Firefox. Last time cookies.sqlite (the file Firefox uses for cookies) was modified in my W10 was last time I opened Firefox outside the sandbox to update Firefox. This took place at 3:37PM on May 5th. Look at the picture of the update. Also look at the time stamp for cookies.sqlite in the second picture, that time stamp is the last time cookies were modified in my computer (3:40PM May 5th).

    Since May 5th (13 days ago), I visited YouTube for at least a couple hours every day. Also, since that day, I haven't run Firefox unsandboxed for any reason. If cookies were getting out of the sandbox, that change would be reflected by a more recent time stamp than May 5th in cookies.sqlite.

    2.jpg

    1.jpg


    Bo
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2019
  23. Mr.X

    Mr.X Registered Member

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    Here:
    1. Logged into Google.
    2. Chrome 64 bit.
    3. Everything unchecked under Applications/Web browser.
    4. Sandboxie 5.30 (64-bit) Licensed.
    5. Windows 8.1 x64
    6. Chrome's cookies are saved in its Cookies file, as usual.


    I can't see and never seen any Cookies file escape from my dedicated sandboxes (yes I have 5 sandboxes for 5 Chrome's profiles).


    Proof.
    Modification date and time in the real system:

    Real system.png


    Modification date and time in the sandbox:

    sandbox.png
     
  24. RioHN

    RioHN Registered Member

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    This is expected behaviour. YouTube browsing history (that which feeds into recommended videos) is stored server side.
    You connected to YouTube while not sandboxed in order to have YouTube "create new cookies". Future sandboxed sessions will then use these same cookies while browsing YouTube and watching southpark. When you clear the sandbox the cookie isn't deleted because it's not in the sandbox. When opening a non-sandboxed browser again the same cookies will be used.

    Your sandboxed session is linked to your non-sandboxed session via cookies created outside of the sandbox before you started testing.

    Another way to think about and test this; Log in to this forum while not sandboxed and opt to stay signed in. Now open the same browser sandboxed and view the forum. You should find you're still signed in. Sandboxed applications can read the file system by default, including cookies that already exist outside the sandbox.

    Instead try clearing all cookies again, inside and outside of the sandbox. Then only browse YouTube while sandboxed. Try this multiple times clearing the sandbox after each visit and see if the same issue occurs.
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2019
  25. Rasheed187

    Rasheed187 Registered Member

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    Well, I guess you're right, because I had problems with Firefox and Vivaldi (high CPU usage + freezing), but after a completely fresh install inside a clean sandbox, all problems were solved. I'm now running Vivaldi in 3 separate sandboxes, no problems. You just gotta love Sandboxie for this.
     
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