Sandboxie - A Virtual Protection

[ianch99]

The OP's comments about qasdfdsaq on the Sandboxie forum e.g. here make unpleasant reading. Challenging an opinion of a piece of software does not merit this language.

[Osem]

Originally Posted by ianch99

The OP's comments about qasdfdsaq on the Sandboxie forum e.g. here make unpleasant reading. Challenging an opinion of a piece of software does not merit this language.

[heero_yuy]

As a new boy on the CF block the OP should be a little more circumspect. Until you know a bit about the members and their expertise it's better to keep your gob shut.

Originally Posted by joglynne

I have read all this and looked at the Sandboxie site.

The inaccurate claims our members are disputing are yours rather than those put forward by the developers of Sandboxie when they advertise what it was designed to do. You were the one to make inaccurate claims so why would our members need to visit a site that they have no argument with?

Whatever I have said I stand by and I did not make any inaccurate claims.

If you feel that my OP and following posts are a load of rubbish, then fine if it makes you happy.

I am more than happy with Sandboxie. I am not going to be pilloried for anything I have said and will no longer argue these irrelevant issues. If you do not like Sandboxie, then carry on with your outdated AV programs.

My thread was to portray the benefits of Sandboxie as I see it and from my own 10 years experience, albeit in my own words and to the best of my knowledge, not to become embroiled in some personal fracas.

Read my OP +, read what Sandboxie says, make your own judgement, then take it or leave it and let the personal aggravation drop.

[mart44]

Originally Posted by Wittmann

OK Mart, if you wish to make this guys day by replying to his nonsense, then fine. I personally have better things to do.

"Sandboxie is right for me and that's good enough." No Mart, it is not good enough, Sandboxie is right for every private user and there is nobody that can seriously criticise the security of the program other than engage in mischievous technical nitpicking, which they have not the guts to do on the Sandboxie Forum.

I don''t see that post as making anyone's day. Just saying that although I use Sandboxie, I don't feel the need to be on a crusade over it. I have promoted its use where possible in the past but there has always been little uptake of it as a result. So these days I don't push it as much. You can come through the other side of wanting to do that in the end.

Anyway, I've seconded Sandboxie being a good program that I use myself (but not the only security program installed) and that will have to do I'm afraid. This is the most I've written about anything for ages. I can't stand being serious for too long and I feel I must lighten up now. Sorry for any bad feeling that may have been down to me.

[joglynne]

Originally Posted by Wittmann

Whatever I have said I stand by and I did not make any inaccurate claims.

If you feel that my OP and following posts are a load of rubbish, then fine if it makes you happy.

I am more than happy with Sandboxie. I am not going to be pilloried for anything I have said and will no longer argue these irrelevant issues. If you do not like Sandboxie, then carry on with your outdated AV programs.

My thread was to portray the benefits of Sandboxie as I see it and from my own 10 years experience, albeit in my own words and to the best of my knowledge, not to become embroiled in some personal fracas.

Read my OP +, read what Sandboxie says, make your own judgement, then take it or leave it and let the personal aggravation drop.

There is no personal aggravation on my part. I have done as you say and, as a result, formed my own opinion of your level of knowledge and integrity from your own posts here and your inaccurate posts about this thread on the Sandboxie forum. Your over exaggerations about a product versus the opinions of those members on here who are far more experienced in security issues leaves me in no doubt as to whose opinions I would trust on matters of computer security.

Originally Posted by joglynne

There is no personal aggravation on my part. I have done as you say and, as a result, formed my own opinion of your level of knowledge and integrity from your own posts here and your inaccurate posts about this thread on the Sandboxie forum. Your over exaggerations about a product versus the opinions of those members on here who are far more experienced in security issues leaves me in no doubt as to whose opinions I would trust on matters of computer security.

Very commendable - well done !

[qasdfdsaq]

Originally Posted by Stuart

It also appears to offer little or no protection against attacks where a virus infects another machine on the network, then starts scanning that network for other machines it can infect. All they need is a network share with bad security and the ability to create processes on a remote machine. Both things that SandboxIE probably will not protect against, and therefore would be unable to sandbox the virus.

This is a very good point that I missed. Even if Sandboxie's protection of your own machine were 100% perfect, allowing web browsing through it by nature depends on allowing applications to send and receive network data. In addition to your example, they could also use remote code execution exploits against other machines on your network, not necessarily even PCs. They could infect your phones, tablets, consoles, and so forth, all from within the sandbox. And any virus out to steal your data could easily do so, and send that data back to it's creator, well before you close down the sandbox. Sandboxie could potentially block that by blocking local network access, but that's not it's job, that's the job of a firewall or IDS.

[Stuart]

Originally Posted by Wittmann

@ Stuart

Stuart, your post is a reasonable one, but it is not up to me to say what Sandboxie can or cannot do in glorious technicolour. I am just a mere user who has had 10 years of brilliant, flawless and highly efficient service from the program.

If you wish to go into intimate detail concerning Sandboxie`s capabilities and limitations or have some criticisms to make, I am not the person to satisfy your curiosity. I suggest you put your comments and queries etc. direct to the Sandboxie experts, either by joining their Forum or by direct contact.

The Forum is - http://forums.sandboxie.com/phpBB3/ and you will find an abundance of enthusiasm to answer your questions in ex[licit detail.

I haven't asked any questions. I have also not expressed any concerns about sandboxie's capabilities, nor do I have any to express. I outlined one possible infection method (one that I have experienced myself, but a combination of security on my shares and a good antivirus detected the virus and stopped it infecting my machine) that it seems sandboxie would not protect the user against, and I suspect it's not intended to.

I have concerns about your apparent belief that sandboxie is a replacement for good security practice (which should *always* include running up to date software) rather than an addition to good security practice. No security tool I know of is intended to be a total solution to security problems on a PC and I suspect such a tool is not possible.

---------- Post added at 19:24 ---------- Previous post was at 18:55 ----------

Originally Posted by Wittmann

Whatever I have said I stand by and I did not make any inaccurate claims.

If you feel that my OP and following posts are a load of rubbish, then fine if it makes you happy.

I am more than happy with Sandboxie. I am not going to be pilloried for anything I have said and will no longer argue these irrelevant issues. If you do not like Sandboxie, then carry on with your outdated AV programs.

My thread was to portray the benefits of Sandboxie as I see it and from my own 10 years experience, albeit in my own words and to the best of my knowledge, not to become embroiled in some personal fracas.

Read my OP +, read what Sandboxie says, make your own judgement, then take it or leave it and let the personal aggravation drop.

That's just it. What you have said directly contradicts claims made on their own website. Either you are wrong, or they are. If they are wrong, they are mis selling the product, an act which is illegal under the sale of goods act.

I don't believe they are wrong, and I don't believe that sandboxie is intended as a replacement for good AV, patching or a good firewall.

[GrimUpNorth]

A quick look at the FAQ section of the Sandboxie website:

Do I need other solutions if I use Sandboxie?
Sandboxie may be your first line of defense, but it should certainly be complemented by the more traditional anti-virus and anti-malware solutions. These solutions can let you know if your system does become infected in any way.
Typically, those other solutions employ various forms of pattern matching to discover malicious software and other threats. Sandboxie, on the other hand, quite simply does not trust any software code enough to let it out of the sandbox.
The combination of the two approaches should keep malicious software -- which is serving the interest of other unknown parties -- out of your computer.

Just reading the sandboxie FAQ's helped me make my mind up on the validity of the OP's comments.

Cheers

Grim

[alanbjames]

Is it just me or do most Internet Security Packages now offer Sandbox environments to?

Im using Kaspersky Internet Security 2015 which offers a Sandbox Environment.

Originally Posted by alanbjames

Is it just me or do most Internet Security Packages now offer Sandbox environments to?

Im using Kaspersky Internet Security 2015 which offers a Sandbox Environment.

IMPORTANT - Sandboxie encloses the entire browser, plus any other programs or browsers you have on your PC by individual selection, even Email.

The sandboxes that other programs have are contained within either the program or within the browser.

No comparison whatsoever.

[qasdfdsaq]

Wrong. Advanced antivirus programs sandbox Windows itself.

[mart44]

Sandboxes are included within some AV programs. This at least shows that it must be thought a worthwhile layer of security. Where it's difficult for signature databases to keep up with new malware, sandboxing becomes useful. No detection necessary. They just don't trust anything. True there are circumstances where a sandbox won't help but for the average home user like me, a good security measure to have.

It took quite a long time for AV programs to include sandboxing I believe, whereas Sandboxie has been around for a lot longer. I don't know about the popular AV programs' sandboxes but I tried Avast's and Kaspersy's a while back and thought them not as good as Sandboxie. Maybe they are better now.

I tried Comodo's Virtual Kiosk (version 6 I think) this seemed to work well but I had to turn off the automatic sandboxing because it would sandbox trusted files or programs without asking. Stopped using Comodo for another reason in the end but might soon give the latest version a try.

One sandbox that I think can give Sandboxie some competition comes from Qihoo. Their 'Total Security' and 'Internet Security' programs both include a sandbox. It's easy to use and runs any designated program in the sandbox (including browsers). Programs can be made to start automatically sandboxed.

However, since the mentioned sandboxes haven't been around for the number of years that Sandboxie has, I wonder if they are as good. After using Qihoo's sandbox for a while, I have come back to Sandboxie. I'm still more inclined to trust this one as being the best. Certainly easy to use with its multiple sandbox option. Also, it automatically offers to save a download to the system once it has completed in the sandbox. Qihoo doesn't do that.

You can tell I'm a bit into sandboxing can't you?

[Osem]

Originally Posted by GrimUpNorth

A quick look at the FAQ section of the Sandboxie website:

Do I need other solutions if I use Sandboxie?
Sandboxie may be your first line of defense, but it should certainly be complemented by the more traditional anti-virus and anti-malware solutions. These solutions can let you know if your system does become infected in any way.

Cheers

Grim

So it seems the OP isn't using the product according to its creator's own instructions then. If so, his computer could already be infected with something couldn't it?




---------- Post added at 08:55 ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 ----------

Originally Posted by mart44

Sandboxes are included within some AV programs. This at least shows that it must be thought a worthwhile layer of security. Where it's difficult for signature databases to keep up with new malware, sandboxing becomes useful. No detection necessary. They just don't trust anything. True there are circumstances where a sandbox won't help but for the average home user like me, a good security measure to have.

It took quite a long time for AV programs to include sandboxing I believe, whereas Sandboxie has been around for a lot longer. I don't know about the popular AV programs' sandboxes but I tried Avast's and Kaspersy's a while back and thought them not as good as Sandboxie. Maybe they are better now.

I tried Comodo's Virtual Kiosk (version 6 I think) this seemed to work well but I had to turn off the automatic sandboxing because it would sandbox trusted files or programs without asking. Stopped using Comodo for another reason in the end but might soon give the latest version a try.

One sandbox that I think can give Sandboxie some competition comes from Qihoo. Their 'Total Security' and 'Internet Security' programs both include a sandbox. It's easy to use and runs any designated program in the sandbox (including browsers). Programs can be made to start automatically sandboxed.

However, since the mentioned sandboxes haven't been around for the number of years that Sandboxie has, I wonder if they are as good. After using Qihoo's sandbox for a while, I have come back to Sandboxie. I'm still more inclined to trust this one as being the best. Certainly easy to use with its multiple sandbox option. Also, it automatically offers to save a download to the system once it has completed in the sandbox. Qihoo doesn't do that.

You can tell I'm a bit into sandboxing can't you?

A legacy of happy childhood playtime I reckon...