Sandboxie Technologies (SBIE Open source) (VERSION 5.33.6 ONLY!)

Some of you guys might remember Defense Wall, developed by Ilya Rabinovich, who for pretty much this same reason had no interest in developing it for 64 bit Windows. Furthermore, he mentioned in these forums how anti-viruses were taking all the market share as well.

 

Hi Wabe6666. Its been about 3 months since I last heard from Tom. I emailed him 3 times during this span of time but unfortunately, he hasn't responded. In the last mail, I mentioned that if this project is not gonna go on, either he or I should tell people here in this thread. But I am getting no feedback from him.

I don't know if he got frustrated with Microsoft, he was getting the run around from them. They were making it difficult to get the driver signatures. Last I heard from him, he told me he was gonna ask Sophos for help to get thru Microsoft. Perhaps Sophos didn't want to get involved (If this is the case, shame on them), I dont know. I feel like a stray dog. Sophos still has a link to this thread in their Sandboxie forum. Is this project dead? I really don't know.

Bo

 

To be honest, this program has been dead for two years now.

Since Sophos announced that the program was going to be open source, I never had any hope that it would be alive. Only two developers have been interested in keeping it alive and one of them seems to be no longer interested.

A program (Sandboxie Plus version) that is detected as a virus, due to the problem of not being signed, has zero future.

 

Sadly too.

There were other (at the time) security HIPS + FIREWALLS (32 bit) that were virtually impenetrable many of us were chomping at the bits to see transitioned for compatibility to 64 bits. When that didn't happen, lots of disappointment arose and the search was on for suitable replacements.

Problem was, and as far as i'm concerned, not much equaled what those provided at the time. My favored HIPS was EQSysSecure and it was a champion on this end. Defense Wall likewise. And others!

 

Sad but true if more don't chip in. DavidXanatos seems to be doing a good job developing Sandboxie Plus -- I've been using it for several weeks -- but that won't last forever gratis. Donation levels being what they currently are ($78/month total at patreon.com!), David will never be able to afford a certificate. That's why I recently increased my monthly donation... -- jclarkw

 

Sandboxie, unless it gets more expert care and support, seems to be on life support. Too bad tzuk left for greener pastures, but who can blame him. I've always got a concern in the back of my mind over the years for any of my favourite security or browser extensions that are developed by lone rangers.

The days of 32 bit Windows was the most enjoyable, with a myriad great security apps to choose from, both paid and free. It was like being a kid in a candy store

 

Thank you, Bo, for your efforts and for your information. Like other posters too, after these news I am pessimistic about the future of this project. That Tom simply disappeared - without any further message - is a bad omen.

Concerning the other project by DavidXanatos:

I got the impression that - at least for the moment - the main problem is not so much the financial one but the requirement to have a company in order to obtain the certificate:

 

More money: costs to register a company in some jurisdiction, TBD, and annual expenses to maintain it active. Apparently in Austria this is very expensive, and in the US it can cost a few hundred dollars per year. And this doesn't even address the time and effort spent on development... -- jclarkw

 

I absolutely don't agree with that statement. For the past 2 years, Sandboxie has worked just as good as ever for me. Other than not being able to install some programs (that in the past we were able to) in the sandbox, the rest of functions are working basically as always. Sandboxie is still alive.

I haven't yet tested David's installers but I appreciate the work that he is doing with Sandboxie. I think we all who love Sandboxie should. Right now I am using Version 5.33.6, if eventually, I install David's release, I would do my best to get along with what he releases. Personally, I don't use antivirus or scanners, so it ought to be easy for me to use David's builds. No beeps from the antivirus. So, as long as Microsoft doesn't start uninstalling SBIE, I ought to be able to use David's builds without issue.

I am not suggesting you quit using an antivirus, but find one that won't bother you much because of the lack of signature in the SBIE installer. That's pretty much the same I used to recommend to people who kept trying to use along Sandboxie antiviruses that historically had clashed with SBIE. It made no sense to do so, and is the same now. You have to play with what we got. Personally, I know if I start using David's builds, I will not have an issue because I will play along with what he releases. I strongly suggest you do the same.

Bo

 

Version 5.33.6 should be good for a while. Is good now with W10 2004 and should be good with the next major release. Thats what I was told. So, we still can wait for a while to see what happens with this project. I ll continue trying to reach Tom, or will try to find out if Curt knows something. If it was dead, I think Curt would know and he would have told me.

So, you never know, perhaps this project is still alive. Tom established a company, and purchased the cert and had developed his first build. Thats time, money and effort that he has already invested. And he has enthusiasm for SBIE, this is not something that someone loses just like that. A couple of months ago, Curt told me he heard Tom was going thru some sort of personal issue. So, perhaps he is going thru a difficult time and will resurface when all things are well. Time will tell.

Bo

 

5.33.6 here, as well. There is no need to change given that I'm not even running W10. Good to see you, Bo.

 

Hi sdmod. Please forgive me for saying this, but it was actually Illya from Defense wall who said what you wrote.

Bo

 

Good seeing you too, my good friend Page42. In W7, we are fine with 5.33.6. As long as a browser update doesn't break compatibility with SBIE, we should be OK. This type of update can break things, specially when the user also has an antivirus as part of the mix.

Bo

 

Phew, apologies, I'd posted some gibberish without double checking the installed SBIE build (a very old version!). Anyway, I'm running SBIE version 5.33.6 now on Insiders build 20h2 or 19042.508 with Opera in the Default box, after hiding the usual error messages. It's still working fine here, better than fine. I'm keeping it around for while, just to make sure it hangs in there.

I sincerely hope whatever is preventing the developer from pursuing this project gets worked out. Sandboxie must not be allowed to fade into the sunset, even though it seems beyond difficult at times.

(PS: had to do the Sophos thing to get the download again. But got it very quickly.)

 

thanks @bo elam

but

I think that Tzuk also said that...I may be wrong but Defense Wall wouldn't have been of the same interest to me because I didn't use it. I pretty much used Sandboxie from the beginning alongside Shadow Defender when Tzuk and Tony had ironed the conflicts out. As I remember it Tzuk said that he might be unable or didn't wish to develop Sandboxie for 64 bit systems because it might lose some of it's integrity and function (or words to that effect) but then changed his mind. Maybe I have false memory syndrome
Also it was a long time ago. I was an active member of the Sandboxie forum from the outset under another name. I used to communicate with tzuk by email at times in those days...I'll check through my old emails and see if I can find anything related to this question.

 

Really hope Tom resurfaces to take this unique application forward, as I would prefer to follow the most 'conservative' fork (if that's a fair characterisation).

I had a couple of lifetime licenses and still have v5.33.6 installed on one machine, but not using it at the moment.

 

That would be great. Still hoping that it will happen.
That you can't buy an EV Cert without being a company seems so stupid. (That's the problem for the sandboxie plus dev, being no company. It just raises the amount of time and money to spend quite a bit :/ )

 

Memory tends to fade over time (yours and mine), but I think the words you wrote are pretty much what I remember Illya saying was the reason for him discontinuing DW. I dont recall Tzuk ever saying anything like that.

I remember there was something called Experimental protection for 64 bits.

https://sandboxie-website-archive.github.io/www.sandboxie.com/ExperimentalProtection.html

It was a Sandbox setting that helped in bringing protection in 64 bits systems closer if not to the same level to what it was in 32 bits systems. And then with the release of Sandboxie Version 4.02, full protection became available for 64 bit systems.

https://sandboxie-website-archive.github.io/www.sandboxie.com/VersionChanges-2.html#v_4_02

A few words on DefenseWall. It was a great program. If I had discovered it earlier than Sandboxie, I might of had become a DW user instead of a SBIE user. Sandboxing was done differently than how SBIE does it but the end result was the same. DW did not have a delete contents functions, so all files that were downloaded or created by sandboxed programs remained in the system, but this files remained under the protection of DW and were isolated from the rest of the system. The user did the cleaning. Some people had trouble understanding this about DW, but it made sense to me and understood llya's approach. I used it for a while along SBIE (not needed really). That and spending too much time opening and using the user interface to keep track of files and looking at pretty charts, etc, is what got me into leaving this truly wonderful program behind.

Bo

 

Looks like Ilya was definitely considering a 64-bit version there for awhile... one that offered a bit less protection.

March 13, 2011 ...

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...sewall-personal-firewall.294634/#post-1842070


September 8, 2011 ...

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...ense-wall-go-64bit.307141/page-2#post-1933868


September 8, 2011 ...

https://www.wilderssecurity.com/thr...ense-wall-go-64bit.307141/page-2#post-1933922

 

I hold my fingers crossed for Tom to overcome whatever he is fighting and I hope he will be back soon to get Sandboxie developement running again.

I remember DW too, I was considering it in 2009 but then decided to go with Sandboxie and loved it ever since.

 

Confirming that today's new Snapshot update 3.4.2049.2 of Vivaldi doesn't work for me either. The cursor stutters, but nothing launches.

Today's regular update 81.0 of Firefox seems to work OK in Sandboxie. I'm running 64-bit Windows 10 Pro on a desktop. The September updates are installed, with no problems so far.

So the end is indeed nigh (unless perhaps Vivaldi have created a bug). I'll have to change my default browser to Firefox for the moment, but that may well last a few more months. All best wishes to the developers --- if you can succeed, you will be greatly appreciated by many people.

 

Well, this is disheartening news about Vivaldi's sudden incompatibility. Opera and Sandboxie are still very much viable together, plus Opera updated on here today to version 71.0.3770.148.

I'll be keeping close watch.

 

Can you successfully open Vivaldi with the --disable-gpu switch?

(A shot in the dark, as on the PC I'm currently working with, I can't check this for myself.)