Sandboxie - How safe is it?

tomb50

After years of trouble free surfing, a while back I experienced what I believe to be an attempt to hijack my computer, followed two days later by my first ever scam email.

Probably just coincidence, and both easily dealt with, but ever since I've been wondering IF both were indeed malicious, what would have happened if I'd let both run, assuming I'd been running the browser (Comodo Dragon) in a sandox (Sandboxie), on an old spare laptop.

As an oldie with an inquisitive mind and probably too much time on my hands I'd very much appreciate any input as to whether running anything in a sandbox is the ultimate safeguard.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

kwikbreaks

Not 100% sure but I imagine if you get infected with a key logger and you continue to use the same session it won't help. It would stop any permanent infection though.

tomb50

Thanks for that Kwikbreaks, have to admit you lost me after keylogger, but you seem to confirm that nothing on interweb is 100% safe, not even a sandbox. Thanks again.

aerostar

Even if running in a sandbox malware can still look around and grab data from your computer and send it out to the net.

Sandbox should not allow any changes being made to the computer - but you have to remember to delete the contents of the sand box when you are finished, terminating any processes that may be running in it.

Sandboxes are usefull but are not the be all and end all of safety.

tomb50

Again, many thanks Aerostar. As you say, the reason I stopped using Sandboxie was I kept forgetting to transfer downloaded freeware on to the actual C-Drive before closing it.

Certainly seems like nothings totally safe online.

bluesnake

you would be less corruptible using something like the free virtualbox and a virutal computer, or a few virtual computers including linux ones. You can also snapshot these multiple times, so you can roll them back/recover, even delete them.

You are also able so set up a communal area between the real and virtual disk, easing file transfers between the two

tomb50

bluesnake wrote: »

you would be less corruptible using something like the free virtualbox and a virutal computer, or a few virtual computers including linux ones. You can also snapshot these multiple times, so you can roll them back/recover, even delete them.

You are also able so set up a communal area between the real and virtual disk, easing file transfers between the two

Have to admit, Comodo offers a virtual drive, and I'm often tempted to try it on old laptop, but I'm pretty sure my brain isn't up to it. Pity, but it's on my to-do list along with Linux.

bluesnake

tomb50 wrote: »

Have to admit, Comodo offers a virtual drive, and I'm often tempted to try it on old laptop, but I'm pretty sure my brain isn't up to it. Pity, but it's on my to-do list along with Linux.

the good thing about virutalPC and the client you make is when you are sick of them, you can uninstall virtualpc and just delete the client disks. They also have dynamic disks, where upon the drives grows to the maximum you previously specified - physical space allowing, but as files are deleted the virtual drive does not shrink.

Have a play,,,, it is free

Gillor

kwikbreaks wrote: »

Not 100% sure but I imagine if you get infected with a key logger and you continue to use the same session it won't help.....

To avoid the possibility of keylogger attacks during a Sandboxie session install the free version of Zemana Antilogger.

mart44

tomb50 wrote: »

Again, many thanks Aerostar. As you say, the reason I stopped using Sandboxie was I kept forgetting to transfer downloaded freeware on to the actual C-Drive before closing it.

Certainly seems like nothings totally safe online.

I prefer to run browsers under Sandboxie's protection and have been doing so for a number of years.

As regards downloading of programs and files that you choose to download: Sandboxie automatically offers to save downloads to your computer (outside of the sandbox) when the download is complete. Even if you chose not to let this happen, it is still possible to retrieve downloads from the sandbox using the 'Quick Recovery' option when the browser is closed. Downloads in the sandbox don't become lost. Also, if you shut down the computer, the download will be available for recovery when the computer and Sandboxie are restarted. The download will only be lost if you delete the contents of the sandbox without first retrieving it.

Sandboxie isn't the only layer of security on my computer. There is a realtime AV program running and a firewall. Scans are done with HitmanPro and MBAM occasionally. However, using Sandboxie can mean that they never have malware to find because if any is come across while browsing, it will be contained within the sandbox. Empty that and its gone.

This depends on Sandboxie doing its job properly but so far, it has done ..this is if the scans with other layers of security are anything to go by. They always come up clean. Sandboxie perhaps isn't the be all and end all of security but it provides a good layer of it. I don't like to use the Internet without it.

The e-mail program isn't run sandboxed but downloaded e-mail attachments are opened in the sandbox. Some programs can be installed in a sandbox to see if they run without problems before installing them on the system outside of the sandbox.

Unfortunately, there does seem to be one or two bugs affecting my use of Sandboxie at present. One is that some sites will crash when running Firefox in Sandboxie. This doesn't happen often but for instance, uploading images to Photobucket will always do it. Google Chrome runs OK in the sandbox but the process won't terminate automatically in the sandbox when the browser is closed (it should). It has to be stopped manually. These problems will hopefully go away when Sandboxie is next updated.