up vote 3 down vote favorite
share [g+] share [fb]

As you might know sandboxing software doesn't work in 64bit Windows due to patchguard. What are the alternatives for a person looking to test untrusted / temporary software?

Edit: @Nick I'd prefer an alternative to VMs as I'm not happy with the extended startup time, the extra login sequences and the memory overhead that accompanies booting a VM solution to test something out ocassionally as a home user. Also it's another system that needs to be kept secure and up to date.

link|improve this question
86% accept rate
feedback

3 Answers

up vote 0 down vote accepted

I realize this is an old post, but for the sake of those sill looking:

Actually it doenst really support 64 bit, this is from the Sandboxie home page-

"Full disclosure: The 64-bit edition of Sandboxie provides a reduced level of protection compared to the 32-bit edition of Sandboxie.

This shortcoming is the result of a new security feature introduced in 64-bit editions of Windows, called Kernel Patch Protection. This feature aims to protect the core of Windows (the kernel) by regularly performing self-checks to detect changes.

The problem is that a stock Windows kernel does not provide all the facilities necessary to implement a security solution such as Sandboxie. On 32-bit Windows, Sandboxie can dynamically enhance the Windows kernel to provide the missing functionality. This is not possible on 64-bit Windows, due to the Kernel Patch Protection feature.

It should be noted, however, that even with this disadvantage, the 64-bit edition of Sandboxie is still an adequate front line of defense against most types of malicious software.

Additionally, in order to compensate for this disadvantage, the 64-bit edition of Sandboxie enables the Drop Rights setting by default. This setting may need to be disabled before software can be installed into a sandbox."

So Basically, since you cant legally reverse engineer and recompile the windows kernel, virtualization and emulation are the only alternatives for a x64 windows environment. In Linux and Unix x64 this is not the case.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 3 down vote

You could always use a VM to test software you're not sure you want to install.

link|improve this answer
To add to this, VM software like Virtual PC 2007 and VMWare ESXi are both free and very extensive. I prefer to use a VM for all sandboxing environments. – Russ Warren Aug 3 '09 at 15:44
I've found VirtualBox (also free) to be a good option for sandbox VMs. – Brian Knoblauch Aug 3 '09 at 16:23
I'm not happy with the extended startup time, the extra login sequences and the memory overhead that accompanies booting a VM solution to test something out ocassionally as a home user. Also it's another system that needs to be kept secure and up to date. – svandragt Aug 6 '09 at 14:30
1  
They all support pause/resume on the virtual machines, so startup is a matter of seconds. – Weltenwanderer Dec 22 '10 at 9:07
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

Sandboxie has resumed support for 64-bit Windows.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Your Answer

 
or
required, but never shown
discard

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.