I want to test CIS & other Security Softwares myself but I dont have a spare PC. Can I install VMWare on my Production Machine & test?? Is it completely safe??? Which is the best free VM Software??
My Production Machine is WIN XP SP3 with Latest Updates.
VMWare Workstation isn’t free, it’s pretty expensive!
Virtualbox isn’t recommended (if you are going to install CIS)
VMWare Player is an excellent tool, from my understanding you cannot create a VM with this you can only run a VM
VirtualPC is a great tool (I used it before i knew about Workstation(VMWARE))
Virtual machine uses real network adapter, and if you infect VM with worms, it could spread the virus and exploit vulnerable software to infect the real PC (highly unlikely).
VMware Player in free version doesn’t have option to create snapshots. VMware Workstation has some advanced features that VMware Player doesn’t have.
I would upgrade your ram… Unless you dont have many apps running…
I would use virtualbox… to be honest… you dont have that alot to share with the guest OS…
You’ll be able to use winXP Pro / home only… and i would customize it before doing any type of testing… (Disable ‘themes’ service, disable printer spooler etc etc)
You’ll be able to give at maximum 300 MB to the guest… but it will be a bit slow… i do recommend again to upgrade your ram
But how about theoretical scenarios like malware escaping the Virtual Machine environment?
Well, the solution is to simply run your Virtual Machine sandboxed (I use Sandboxie for this when I am testing malware), and/or enable a system virtualiser (I would suggest Shadow Defender) before testing the malware in your Virtual Machine. In this way, the malware will need to bypass your Virtual Machine as well as Sandboxie and/or Shadow Defender. Then once it’s out, it will still need to bypass LUA + SRP + Hardware DEP.
If you decide to use the manual sandbox of Comodo could you give some feedback, i read that article just a few days ago, and right now i do not have the time to test. I use Virtual PC.
For it to be completely safe you would need Comodo blocking inbound on your host, because VMWare uses a network for file sharing, commonly exploited by malware.
Wow it seems light & also compatible with my system & hardwares. But I dont know anything about this. Is it completely safe like VMware, Virtual Box, etc. VirusTotal - ClamAV detects it as Rootkit.