How safe is Windows Vista inside VirtualBox?

trcooke

Good afternoon folks,

I have an installation of Windows Vista running from within Sun's VirtualBox on a Linux host machine. Should I still install the standard set of Virus Scanners etc etc or is Windows 'safe' inside the vm?

Cheers

Unstoppable_2

It is for all intents and purposes a standard installation on a computer so it's as open to malware and viruses etc as any other installation. The VM only offers protectino if there's no internet connectivity and you scan files you've downloaded elsewhere.

fwor

AFAIK your Linux install and the stability of the PC itself is safe, in that (other than any shared directory that you might have configured) the Vista install is isolated in it's own dedicated memory and disk space. No doubt Virtualbox has bugs, but even if uncovered, no malware writer in their right mind would bother to try to exploit them - the proportion of vulnerable PCs would just be too small.

However, the Vista install itself is every bit as vulnerable to being trashed by malware as one that "owns" the whole PC, so (IMO) AV and windows updates are essential, plus a firewall if directly connected to the internet (e.g. via a USB broadband modem).

trcooke

Sounds about right fwor thanks. There's no shared dir and my intranet is protected from the internet by the router firewall so it's just Windows itself to look after.

Thanks very much.