VirtualBox 3.2.0 (released 2010-05-18)

are virtual boxes safer than sand boxes?

 

Yes, i never seen vb bypassed by malware

 

is it hard to make a virtualbox? will it take long

 

No, it looks like standart windows installation.
I prefer Vmware. It has automatic installation option. Vm more confortable than virtualbox. But you know it is not freeware.

 

IMO running a VM,(especially if your CPU supports hardware virtualization) is as close to 100% as you can get.If you're running it in isolation,pretty much the only way to get your 'real' system infected would be to encounter a malware specifically coded to exploit a vulnerability in the particular version of VB you're running.

 

This is just my opinion but...if you're only interested in security, then a sandbox will be your best choice. I'm not trying to turn this into X product vs Y product, only that for in the interest of security against malware threats, sandboxing in a real system is your best bet. Even though you could use a VM for security purposes, you'd be wasting resources running it for that purpose only. A VM requires fairly significant CPU and memory from your hardware to run adequately, even if you disable 3D support in it. Also keep in mind that a VM is like having an O/S within an O/S, except that anything you do in it such as installing software or initiating system changes and such can be easily reversed. It is a terrific means to test software, and the effects system modifications will have on the machine for the in the guest O/S you are running. You will not come close to harnessing a VM's potential simply by running your browser and other Internet facing apps in it.

Oh, and to answer your question...I don't know. However, I'd say either one is pretty much as safe as the other as long as you configure them, especially the sandbox, properly, even more so if you run either in a standard account (reduced privileges)

 

whats a good virtual box? i see theres virtualbox but is there others? do they also reduce the wear and tear on your harddrive

 

Others include:
Virtualbox (already mentioned)
VMWare
Xen
Qemu

They all store files on the HDD, so no.
In RAM Virtualization would be too scary.

 

I've been using the Portable Virtualbox App as of late and I absolutely love it. They recently came out with a new version (forget the version #) but it grabs the installation from Oracle which is currently version 3.2.8. r64453. I'm not sure exactly how the appliance export feature works, but I know in detail now on what needs to be copied in order to move a working VM to work elsewhere. I am able to plug my portable drive in and fire up VirtualBox and start my VM without any issues on any machine (no matter what drive letter it assigns it). The one thing I discovered is that in order to make it independent from the fact a drive letter was assigned from one host machine and then assigned it another from a different host, it would cause errors b/c it did not know where to find the file. So I editted the VirtualBox.xml to use relative paths vs. drive letter paths, hence:

If I have a Virtual HD location set for H:\VHDs\MyPC.vdi, depending on where the machine's xml is stored... lets say on H:\Portable-VirtualBox-New\data\.VirtualBox\Machines, I would call on the drive in the xml file as ..\..\..\VHDs\MyPC.vdi. The Machine settings are already entered as relative but not the snapshots and VHD's are not... so the samething applies in the VirtualBox.xml for the snapshots... if you have snapshots set to go to H:\Snaphots, you just call the snapshots from the VBox.xml (I abbreviated this time) as ..\..\..\Snapshots\{some number assoc. with the snapshot}.vdi.

I've seen a few people post on what they could do for migration and that's basically how you do it, but in this case, it's totally independent from anything needed from the host system aside from its memory and processor. !!

But if I could wish for one thing is this wonderful app (that being portable part) I wish they would write the entries in the vbox.xml (abbrevating again) as relative versus static paths...b/c each time you create a snapshot, you have to manually make the change back in that xml to reflect the new snaphot by editing the static path and using what I said.

You have to make a few changes in the machine you created's xml, but it should fairly be self-explanatory based on what I mentioned.

If you haven't tried it... google portable virtualbox, they just released a new version (its actually 3.2.8 just like the latest release of virtualbox).

Let me know what you guys think and I am open to helping anyone setting it up b/c I am stoked about this product.

Peace.

Rob

 

I don't want to hijack the thread but do you need an actually OS disk to make a VM? I'm trying to make VM but I don't have an actual OS disk for windows XP. I've made fedora and ubuntu. I want to test some malware on a VM instead of my actual system. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

Sorry about going a little OT here, but what are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

 

Well VMWare is not free and is not cheap. The other 2, I have no idea, never tried them. I tend to like VirtualBox b/c they are constantly keeping it updated (not saying the others are not). And as far as I know, VirtualBox (or the creator of Portable Vbox) is the only one I know of that allows what I mentioned from my previous post.

 

The answer is yes, but if you are Linux savvy (and you appear to be) and that's the road you want to take, try OpenSolaris. I admit I am somewhat Windows 100%, but I did try OpenSolaris as a way to learn some of the functionality and syntax when it comes to another OS. I could care less about MAC (Linux Based... whatever) OS's. Sun (which is now Oracle's child) has iso images of the OS on their site (http://www.opensolaris.com/). Give it a shot if using a paid OS is not an option and it comes pre-built with Open Office!

Now if you are looking for a XP option, you'll either need to do what no one likes to talk about (and I refuse to mention it in this forum) or go out and buy a copy of XP (I'd say good luck with that).

P.S. It appears they haven't come out with a new version since last June on OpenSolaris but they could be one in the works around the corner.

-Rob

 

If I remember correctly you can use a program called VMWare vcenter converter that'll copy your current system to a VMWare image.

*Edit* Here it is... http://www.wmware.com/products/converter

 

Awesome. THanks guys for the info. I knew there was a way around having an actual disk on hand. Thanks for the help.

 

Doesn't look like it. This from Computerworld magazine.

By James Niccolai
August 13, 2010 06:50 PM ET
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IDG News Service - Oracle appeared to confirm this week what many in the computer industry already suspected: The OpenSolaris project is dead.

Oracle laid out its Solaris strategy in an internal memo that was leaked to the OpenSolaris mailing list on Friday. It says Oracle's efforts are focused on a commercial Solaris release that will help expand the sale of its servers and other products.

 

VMware, Virtualbox, and Xen are very similar technologies.
Xen and VMWare worked together for awhile helping each other out.

VMware and Virtualbox don't require a lot of configuration to be up and running.

Qemu is probably the most flexible allowing for a more realistic PC by virtualizing as many device components as you want to program into it.

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How well is the new Virtualbox handling VMWare images?