Sandboxed Malware – 100% Safe Surfing

This post was written by admin on November 4, 2008
Posted Under: PC Security, Sandboxed Malware, Technology

Update February 2010 - Windows 7 and 64Bit compatibility released

This video will show you how using a sandbox protects you from malware infections while surfing. Quite simply, you do NOT get infected unless YOU specifically ‘recover’ the malware.

In this demonstration I have opened the ‘ecard’ virus which contains a Win32.Trojan. This would normally make changes to your files, adding a new ‘driver’ and .dll file.

By opening this within a sandbox the changes are plain to see, followed by a scan with Superantispyware Free Edition which found the infections.

However, for the purposes of this tutorial, I chose NOT to remove them and to delete the contents of the sandbox, then rescan with Superantispyware which showed that there were NO infections within the system whatsoever.

I had previously cleaned the registry prior to opening the ‘ecard’ virus and after deleting the sandbox contents I ran a registry cleaner again which showed that it was clean.

I do not advise that you try to emulate this as it also means disabling any antivirus which would have stopped the program from running.

It does show that surfing within a sandboxed environment is much safer than normal surfing, where many users are clicking links and downloading codecs only to find that they are then infected. With a sandbox you only get infected if you ‘recover’ the files, but by deleting the contents all malware goes with it as it never gets outside of the virtual area and on to the hard drive.

Whatever you browse to leaves traces, cookies, history, temp files etc, but when you delete the contents of the sandbox everything is gone.

Try Sandboxie for free, after 30 days you will get a ‘nag’ window asking you to upgrade, and to be honest a lifetime license will cost you €26 Euros, $35.65 US Dollars, £22.72 UK pounds, for other currency conversion rates click here to convert, it really is a bargain - rates vary with currency changes.

The license will also allow you to run Sandboxie on any number of computers that you own for personal use and also allows you to open more than one sandbox at a time.

Sandboxie is a remarkable program, allowing users to surf in safety and is compatible with Windows 2000, XP, 2003, Vista (32-bit / 64-bit), Windows 7 (32-bit / 64-bit)

Download Sandboxie here: Scroll down the download page for further instructions for Win2000 and Vista 64-bit.

Sandboxie Supports Windows 7 and 64Bit