Hi all,
How safe is it to run malware in a virtual machine (it will be running my old XP Pro license)? I plan to try out my own anti-virus/firewall comparison tests out of curiosity, and was planning to do it with VMware Server. Is there any chance that the host system will get infected?
Thanks in advance!
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Check this VMWare patch announcement.
Virtualbox also has had it's vulnerabilities.
No one knows what kind of 'fun' resides in tomorrow's keygen/crack/whatever or drive-by download (which I assume you're going to harvest first) and what they are capable of.
My best advice would be to not use a production machine for malware testing and to not hook it up on a LAN where other computers/users might be affected.
You could sandbox your VM or virtualize a sandboxed VM in a sandbox or whatever, as described here but I would simply not use a production machine.
This Wilders thread is also interesting; check out which FW+HIPS crack under pressure and what virtualization and sandboxing is needed.
Also, make sure that your firewall&HIPS (if you're going to use such a combination) function properly within the VM before testing malware, so test results aren't distorted.
VMware vCenter Converter is a nice program that can even use an Acronis backup image for conversion into a virtual machine.
Cheers and have fun. -
If you have the latest vmware is it already patched, and fairly safe?
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Malware and virtual machines
Discussion in 'Security and Anti-Virus Software' started by HerrKaputt, Sep 29, 2009.