SafeSpace Personal Edition

In terms of Memory usage, the SafeSpace console does use a fair amount, but this is only required for configuration. For day to day use of SafeSpace, you don't need the console at all. The icon in the Notification Bar (bottom right corner of your screen) gives access to most of the regular functions.

 

Hi Kris

Could you just expand a little on the ''bit of configuration''

Are you referring to the virtual partition?

 

Yes. By default, SafeSpace blocks access to any files which are not in a folder listed in the Privacy page. So if you need access to files in the virtual partition, you might have to relax the security to Read-Only or Full Control.

 

Ok Kris

Thanks for that clarification

 

this certainly seems to be a nice security app-with prehaps some stability/compatibility issues. tidyup, would you consider, perhaps after opening your forum, implementing a beta-test program? while i realise that by offering the personal edition as a fully functioning build, coupled with the feedback form , you are implementing a defacto beta program. but i submit that with the beta designation, you are telling users, that SafeSpace, while almost 'there' needs some further development. i see a couple advantages to that.

1) people will tend to download it with the explicit intention to test and feedback to assist with development.

2) lower compatibility/stability expectations which i believe will reduce word of mouth black-eyes SafeSpace might otherwise suffer. the public may be more forgiving, because it is afterall a beta. your organization would probably benefit from an enlarged window of opportunity to get compatibility/stability issues addressed, while not being so pummeled in the public eye.

my 45 cents.


Mike

 

Simmikie if you look back at history you will find that SafeSpace already offered this as a beta.
By the way I thought after your comments HERE you didn't like us at Wilders.
Maybe you just had a bad day.
So if I understand Safe Space correctley it is a sandbox, a virtual environment, a HIPS ?
Sorry personily i've havent tried this on yet but i'm kinda curious.

 

Hello Simmikie.

Thank you for your feedback.

We did offer two Beta versions, the forst one back in August. These proved to be very successful in terms of feedback, and helped to shape the console and default configuration in the current version.

Given the nature of what SafeSpace does, there will always be some compatibility issues with other programs. We can't test everything inhouse as there are an infinite number of setups out there, so it is crucial that feedback is given to us. Compatibility issues are generally straightforward to fix, and usually by a simple configuration change. You will see regular updates to SafeSpace over the coming months as we further refine it, in terms of performance and compatibility.

Please don't hesitate to contact us at support@artificialdynamics.com, or by using the online form HERE, or if you want, by PM'ing me on this board. We are here to help.

Best regards,

Kris.

Artificial Dynamics.

 

SafeSpace is indeed a Sandbox, which uses numerous virtualization methods to isolate the activity within the sandbox. It is classified as HIPS, but HIPS is quite a broad term. "Passive Behavioural HIPS" would be more accurate

Regards,

Kris.

Artificial Dynamics.

 

perhaps a little of both, though largely my assesment remains unchanged. i was actually looking for any Prevx posts in other antimalware when i noticed SS. since there is good vender participation, and not merely PA participation...


Mike

 

hey Kris, i just stumbled onto this thread while actually looking for something else, so i hadn't a chance for an in-depth investigation. it seems to me as SS is going thru it's development paces, that it was taking a fair amount of hits, and thought a minor adjustment in concept would help. i noticed you are using past tense in reference to beta-testing. if utilizing betas was helpful yesterday, is it not possible it could be helpful today?

very compelling software, and i wish your organization good success with it.


Mike

 

Very much so. Any feedback you have regarding features, compatibility, issues, general comments, will be greatfully received. All feedback is dealt with promptly. If not fixed immediately, then it will be considered for a subsequent release.

As I mentioned before, we will be publishing regular releases of SafeSpace so if you do want to see any changes, let me know via any of the communication channels.

We already have a few fixes ready, so expect a new release in the next couple of weeks.

We will also be continuing the Beta program for major releases, which will be announced in advance on our forum, when it is launched (soon).

Best regards,

Kris.

 

Hi zopzop, how do you compare SSpace with GW, interms of speed, security, ease of use and features?

Did u try KillDisk against it?

Thanks

 

hey aigle. on my laptop with 512 megs of ram it's noticeably slower than geswall (but then again, my laptop is sorta ghetto ). in terms of security it's pretty impressive (it's like a mix of geswall and sandboxie), although the bufferzone trojan simulator still manages to read the contents of "My documents" folder even after i marked it as restricted. it's really easy to use, almost idiot proof (in fact i put it on my cousin's laptop and she loves it. and she's not pc savy at all. to this day she's had no malware problems). feature-wise it's comparable to geswall paid (restricting/virtualizing folders, sandboxing applications with normal or limited rights, etc..). it's a very good program overall. i wouldn't hesitate to recommend it.

as for killdisk, i haven't tested this myself but i've been told that the virus can't even run in safespace because safespace limits it's rights or something. maybe tidyup aka kris can explain it better than i have.

 

Thanks zopzop, I am ATM totally devoted to GW but might try SSpace in future. I have used and tested GW with satisfying results for such a long time that it will be a real pain to reapeat all these scenarios with SSpace. GW has proved to be the most trustworthy security application on my system( never failed against any experimental malware from day-one of its use). From the posts in this thread I guess SSpace still has problems on significant number of systems, so seems a bit less problem-free than GW( though it has been OK on ur system).

I wish somebody can try it against KillDisk, best to be done on a VM only IMO.

 

SafeSpace blocks all interaction with the kernel, which stops KillDisk from functioning as it attempts to erase sectors at the device level.

This test is a bit false, as it only attempts to read the contents of a folder ,not the contents of a file. SafeSpace blocks applications from reading private data - I.E., the contents of the file, not the name of the file.

Best regards,

Kris.

 

Is it ur expectation or you have actually tested it with KillDisk?

 

Actually tested.

 

Thanks. That,s good indeed!

 

@Tidyup,
In your words, what are the technical/practical advantages of SafeSpace over the established competition (Sandboxie, GeSWall, Defensewall, Bufferzone)?
Thanks in advance

 

@ LUSHER

Strange remark, of course I care about security, otherwise I wouldn´t be spending so much time on this forum. However, at the end of the day I´m just a simple consumer, I´m no security expert, so when I´m testing these tools it´s on a certain level, I´m not trying to bypass these tools with advanced methods.

I wonder what you mean with "technical details"? What are you expecting from us, that we will try to reverse engineer these tools, analyse code and run "fuzzing" tests? What´s your point again? Again, it´s obvious that most of use are no true experts, and we don´t claim to be, I don´t see a problem with that.

For the record, I´ve read quite a lot about the methods that malware may use to infect a system, so I do know why it´s important to guard certain system areas. And I´m also aware of the fact that probably all these HIPS can be bypassed, I never claimed they are bulletproof.

 

Hi there, I have just decided to take SafeSpace for a spin and am having some problems with it. When I want to purge a session, my computer automatically reboots. Now I'm aware it will do this if I set it to "Purge on Log off", but it also does it even if I turn that option off and just use the icon in the task bar to purge. Should it be doing this? I didn't see in the help file anything about requiring reboots.

Also, when it does reboot, when the computer comes back up I get the "system has recovered from a serious issue" Microsoft warning. This happens even when using the manual "purge on log off" option and logging off normally. That's a little worrying to me. I also noticed that when I ran Yahoo Messenger (by double-clicking and it opening up in the SafeSpace environment), that that also caused a reboot.

Firefox seems to crash almost every time inside SafeSpace too. I uninstalled Returnil and Sandboxie to try it out, and I do like the way SafeSpace does things, but these hard crashes can't be good. I currently only have SpywareTerminator and Avast Home running real-time, with SAS and A-Squared Free as manual scanners. Again I actually like the way SafeSpace does things, but if I can't get these crashes worked out I guess I'll head back to Returnil and Sandboxie, and hopefully try SafeSpace at a later date with better results.

*EDIT I now can't open Internet Explorer without the computer restarting, and trying to uninstall SafeSpace results in reboots also and the uninstall fails. This program has to go for now, if I can get it off of here. No disrespect to the dev, maybe it's my system alone.

 

Just to confirm, there is a known issue with Online Armor, who are now aware of the issue and are working on a fix. We have no information about when this will available, but as soon as we know, we will advise.

Unfortunately, this is out of our control.

Kris.

 

I'll refer to a previous post I made:

 

This is fixed - just going thru the beta process now.


Mike

 

Hmm you are contradicting yourself on so many levels , I don't know where to start.

You are not trying to bypass these tools with advanced methods.

But you are looking for stronger HIPS

But since the best HIPS like PS basically defeat all the basic methods (which by that you mean leak tests and such) , you are looking for HIPS that do indeed defeat those "Advanced methods".

But how do you know they do?

You seem to take pride at not being an "expert". You go into this defensive mode , hiding behind this posture of not being an expert, and just wanting to "test" using tools. When in this mode, you pretend to be humble, and you constantly state you just want to be left alone to test at your own level.

But when you start critizing and demanding features at forums like neoava guard, you act like you know tons of stuff about how HIPS should be to be the best most secure hips.

Both positions contradict each other.

Anyway I don't know why you barged your way into this conversation, since I wasn't even directing my remark at you.

If you actually read the thread you would know exactly what "technical detail" I was referring to. It has nothing to do with being a "true expert" or not. I would hope the title "true experts" is much harder to get that just that....

No need to be defensive. I'm sure you have by the standards of ordinary people.

Never said you didn't.....