Sandboxie Plus (Sbie fork)

Survivor Thank you for that link with the idea by Filippo Bruno. That's actually the same thread at the Sophos forums that I provided a link to in my last post above. I was also actually a poster in that same thread. Although Filippo's idea was a good one, I tried it at the time and was not able to make it work for me. Also, I am not familiar enough with SB to know, but even if it did work, I am not sure the level of isolation that would result would be any better than not sandboxing at all. I'd need to understand it better in order to use that technique.

Whistlebird

"I am a little confused. Some of you are using 5.33.6 or a derivative of that number. David states that his version 5.42.1 fixes some vulnerabilities in that last version, so I opted to install this one to address those issues. Shouldn't his version be the better one or is it compatibility problems?"

This is not a comment specifically about David's fork, but just in general. A newer version of a program does not necessarily mean a "better" version. Sometimes newer versions can introduce new bugs, or eliminate previous features that may render them "worse" than the old version for some or all users.

Again, I am NOT saying this specifically about David's fork or about v5.42.1 of SB Plus. I cannot comment on these as I know little about them.

 

Do not mixup the testing, some of us do, due to issues, which are not clear to any of us.

Which some of us think, might be more related to, the Uberquality Alpha version of, Win 10, we are all testing constantly, with all the brilliant new functions, breaking others.
All the italic comments are pure fun and not true of course. Win 10 is the best Windows ever. <cough>
So I would say, as we should trust Davids work, otherwise, why should we be here and using it, it is the most bugfixed version so far.

You need the Setup and the new gui is this one "SbiePlusxx-vx.x.x.zip" in the release, to be copied over in Sandboxie folder.


@DavidXanatos am I blind or am I missing the explore function in the new gui. Another thing, I would seperate those function:

It is too easy to click enable api and check accidentialy one of the critical settings. It is nice to access them easy but I would rather make them visible and checkable in the list for example. Or seperate the logging function and the important switches.

[Ignore but I leave it, if someone else has this issue: (After de and reinstall it works)
Also the API call logging didn't want to work in the last version. Or I am too dumb at the moment. The previous version it worked. by adding the lines for the driver in the General section. Still the same but it doesn't want. As they are in the package I didn't download them from the other section, or should we always get those?]

Some bug? I just found in the sandman interface: In options other Restrictions.
I tried to activate the Start the sandboxed RpcSs as a System process and thought OK activated it, however it in fact deactivated the limit access and protect sandboxed System.
Trying to switch them on with apply failed, PRotect I could, then trying Limit access also switched all of. Then also Don't open default Com objects went off as well, switching this, somehow failed but switched the bottom options on again, with some clicks like in the small game "lights out" or similar ones, I managed to come to the starting selection again. Can you try that.

 

Whoops, sorry for that. I didn't pay attention to that. I think what he suggests is, as long as you trust the program, install it with a more open SBIE setting, then trim it down, when using it.
Given you trust the program in general but want it run in seperation still. If that makes sense

 

Oh damn it ... yea will be fixed in the next build...

 

Hello Xanatos San. Please make sure that this rule: Template=HitmanProAlert

Will continue working with sandboxie Plus. As you can see from my signature, HMPA is part of my setup

 

I just added these rules to all of my sandboxes and the global rules in the ini file

OpenDefaultClsid=n
UnrestrictedSCM=n
ProtectRpcSs=y
BlockNetworkFiles=y
ExposeBoxedSystem=n

(edited because I forgot to add one of them)

It properly enabled those settings without any issues.

 

Sorry, all, but I have to echo whistlebird on this: I'm a more pedestrian Windows 10 Pro user than most (all?) others here. I have been using Sandboxie for about a decade and grown used to the traditional GUI. I'm currently running 5.33.1 x64 from Sophos and saw no reason to update to 5.33.6 for my installation. 5.33.1 does have some bugs, but nothing (that I know of!) that disrupts my normal operations. I've made several tweaks to the configuration file to adapt my 4 sandboxes to different purposes (accommodating several add-ons in Firefox; !!preventing SWReporter from running in Chrome!!, etc.), so the overhead to start over from scratch would be non trivial for me.

Now I'm confronted with the question of whether to update to the current open-source release, 5.42.1. I have not yet read through the entire 14! pages of this thread, but I have scanned the directories at https://github.com/sandboxie-plus/Sandboxie/. Can somebody please give me (and potentially others) summary answers the following questions:

1) Is it time yet to update, given the balance among valuable bug fixes, unfamiliar and potentially confusion new features, and possible new bugs?

2) Is this something that a pedestrian user of traditional Sandboxie Plus can easily do?

3) What are the steps involved in upgrading?

4) Is it possible/recommended to preserve my existing Sandboxie configuration?

Thanks, all, for your indulgence for these newbie questions! -- jclarkw

 

1) yes the new builds bring significant security improvements

2) yes

3) to update sandboxie just use the new installer
3b) to install/update sandboxie plus just unpack the zip and run sandman.exe

4) yes

 

Hello!
Help me please
Can I set the default settings for new users?
To immediately apply these settings to a new PC user on first start:

SbieCtrl_ShowWelcome=n
SbieCtrl_SettingChangeNotify=n
SbieCtrl_HideWindowNotify=n
SbieCtrl_ReloadConfNotify=n
SbieCtrl_EditConfNotify=n
SbieCtrl_EnableLogonStart=y
SbieCtrl_EnableAutoStart=y
SbieCtrl_AddDesktopIcon=n
SbieCtrl_AddQuickLaunchIcon=n
SbieCtrl_AddContextMenu=n
SbieCtrl_AddSendToMenu=n
SbieCtrl_AutoApplySettings=n

I tried to write this options in global section of ini file, but it's don't work...

 

Did you write it far down in your to-do list?

 

See my signature. I added "Template=HitmanProAlert" (but without the quote marks) to the global rules in sandboxie Plus's ini file. No conflicts

From what I understand, Eset uses behavioral analysis that may or may not require some kind of containment and/or HIPS/other kind of application control. Like Avast does (and also like AVG does now that avast and AVG are owned by the same company and their inner workings are almost identical) That might cause eset to conflict with sandboxie

 

Is it true for others, as Henryg1 has told us about his Lenovo laptop, that 5.42.1 won't work under Windows 10 vs. 2004 (but will under 1909, which I fortunately still have). Any ideas what the problem is?

I know Windows 10 is even more of a moving target that earlier versions, but I hope this issue will be solved before I'm forced to update to vs. 2004 or be left behind... -- jclarkw

 

OK, I found those with the help of Buster_BSA's recent post. Now could somebody please answer the following practical questions (under Windows 10 Pro vs. 1909 on a Lenovo P1 Gen2 laptop):

1) Do I have to uninstall Sandboxie 5.33.1 (which I'm currently using) before installing 5.42.1? If not, what?

2) How do I preserve my existing Sandboxie 5.33.1 configuration for use in 5.42.1? Or is this done automatically?

3) Are subsequent version updates done the same way, or is there a "Check for Updates" option now implemented in 5.42.1?

4) Anything else I need to know before I get started on this somewhat daunting project? -- jclarkw

 

Since I installed ESET a year ago, I've not been able to figure out how to get Sandboxie to work. And, I've been a Sandboxie user for years. I've tried multiple things to get it work with no luck. (I will admit that I gave up several months ago and I have not tried the Sandboxie fork.) That's why when my ESET license expires later this month, I'll be switching to a different AV.

 

From my experience
1) you can update with overwrite, as before, if the sanbox wasn't used in that session, otherwise it hiccups a bit.
2) You can always make a backup of the Sandboxie.ini in C:\Windows, but if you uninstall you can decide to keep it. Though backup is never bad.
3) David to answer.
4) The overwrite of Sandman zip files, can stop sometimes, as the service files are in use, if that is the case, best is to stop the service Sandboxie before overwriting. At least that is what happens to me. Or maybe @DavidXanatos the files locked by service don't need to be overwritten?

 

Thanks, Survivor -- I guess the safest is to stop Sandboxie and the service and then over-write and see what happens... -- jclarkw

 

3) yes same way just install over it.
4) if you have installed the acompaning sandboxie release you only need to copy new files from the plus.zip

 

I tried 5.42.1 overwrite and had sandman icon next to sandboxie icon....but, I was still on 5.33.6.
I tried 5.42.1 overwrite again and did not have sandman icon ... and I was on 5.42.1.
Are we supposed to have sandman icon in system tray with sandboxie icon?

 

Now Mostly Answered -- See Below:

Well, that didn't work! Probably I misunderstood the directions from Survivor and DavidXanatos. Obviously I need more hand holding.

Here's what I did and what happened:

I had been running Sandboxie 5.33.1, usually in my Standard User account, under Windows 10 Pro 1909. I logged out and into an Administrator account, stopped the old SbieSvc.exe (which was/is still in "C:\Program Files\Sandboxie\32", expanded the downloaded "SbiePlus64-v0.3.5.zip" into the EXISTING C:\Program Files\Sandboxie directory (the idea being to over-write the old version -- in any case I didn't want it in its choice of default destination, since that was in one of my Standard User's Documents folders), and ran the new "SandMan.exe" from the new "C:\Program Files\Sandboxie\SbiePlus64" directory. This immediately threw the attached error message:
(I don't know what this means or how to fix it.)

Further exploration revealed that nothing has been added to the existing Sandboxie program directory except the new sub-directory, "SbiePlus64," which appears to contain the new version of Sandboxie 5..42.1. The old \32 sub-directory still exists (obviously).

See below for a solution to this error. Best regards -- jclarkw

 

Re above, I did save a copy of Sandboxie.ini (actually saved it to another file name while in the Sandboxie 5.33.1 configuration editor). After the update (which is not completed, as described above), I'm not sure where I should paste this information to preserve my old settings in the new version 5.42.1 (once I get it installed correctly). Where is the new Sandboxie.ini supposed to be located?

Sorry for all the newbie questions! -- jclarkw

 

"Failed to decrypt SbieDrv.sys.rc4 ensure app directory is writable."

I finally found a way around this error: Even though I'm in an Administrator account, I must still apparently "Run as administrator" SandMan.exe. -- jclarkw

 

Well, I got the new Sandboxie 5.42.1 running with the above -- somehow it found my old configuration file through no action of my own -- but there are a few relatively minor issues with which I could use some help:

1) It didn't create a default-browser shortcut although that box is checked in Windows Shell Integration/Shortcut Icons. I had to fake one, which is only partially satisfactory.

2) When I invoked one of my sandbox links, it used to automatically start the Sandboxie service; now I have to start SbieCtrl.exe before any of them work.

3) I'm having trouble with my old (updated) sandboxed link to Outlook 2019, which now comes up saying "Updating Office, please wait a moment..." (The direct link to Outlook does nothing like this.) No idea what's going on here...

Any suggestions gratefully appreciated. -- jclarkw

 

I had similar. Try disabling AV and reinstalling; worked for me.

 

I asked Tzuk many years ago, but any chance of allowing recover & explore to be sticky?