Changing the hardware ID

[Pavlinka]

Hi,

Several times it happened that I could not run any program due to the fact that the program has detected that it is running on a virtual machine.
Information in DMI (does not work)


How can I change the information:

CPU Type: Unknown, 1733 MHz
Motherboard Name: VirtualBox Virtual Platform
Motherboard Chipset: Intel Natoma 82440FX
BIOS Type: VirtualBox Virtual (06/23/99)
Video Adapter: VirtualBox Graphics Adapter (32 MB)
Disk Drive: VBOX HARDDISK ATA Device (25 GB, IDE)
Optical Drive: VBOX CD-ROM ATA Device (Virtual CD-ROM)
Motherboard ID: <VBox>

Everything is marked in red can somehow change?

[loukingjr]

…
Everything is marked in red can somehow change?

No. There are a few programs that won't run in a virtual machine.

[Pavlinka]

When these values cannot be changed...

Is there a way to disable the hardware information search for a specific software?

[loukingjr]

Not that I know of.

[Pavlinka]

Where information is stored, for example, Motherboard ID: <VBox>

I'll try to forcibly change these values...

[Martin]

You can find some information how to change the DMI information in this thread.

[Pavlinka]

Martin: Read more write less

Information in DMI (does not work)

[Martin]

I don't now how I could write less
If changing the DMI information is not enough, your application is too clever in finding out that it runs in a VM
Of course you could search through the source code to find out where the other information is defined and change it in a self compiled version of Vbox, but I don't think that this would be enough to keep the application from detecting a VM.

[Pavlinka]

My question remains the same where information is stored (File) "Motherboard ID: <VBox>"

[loukingjr]

The phrase "beating a dead horse" comes to mind.

[mpack]

The name of VirtualBox devices is stored in the VirtualBox source code.

Speaking as a software developer myself, none of the things you mention would prevent me from detecting that I'm running in a VM. A simple latency test is trivial and almost impossible for a VM to defeat.

[Pavlinka]

mpack: I do not understand what you mean...


Like when I change it will not work anyway?

[mpack]

Yes, I'm saying that the things you are looking at will only solve your problem if the developer was an idiot.

We have a scenario in which a developer specifically tests for being run inside a VM. Do you seriously suppose that he didn't consider what you might do to circumvent his check? Don't you suppose he'd choose a test that you couldn't circumvent? It isn't as if such tests are hard to think of: e.g. reject any platform where there is legacy hardware (like an old network card) combined with a modern CPU. Or, do a latency test, i.e. measure the average response time to some event. VMs will always have higher latency than real hardware.

I probably wouldn't check for "VBOX VGA ADAPTER" etc (a) because I know that string can change, (b) I want a test that works for all VM platforms, not just VirtualBox, and (c) because, as mentioned, I already implemented a simpler and more robust test.