What is virtual box really telling oracle about us when calling home?

[Jobe76]

All programs (well, almost), are nowadays equipped with "call home" functions, and then I'm not only referring to the "new update queries" function, but other information, like what system you're running, configuration, what you're doing in the boxes..

I recently read a question about a guy who ran virtual box on windows, and he wanted to be anonymous in the box with VPN, and my first thought is that he should be, but then I started to wonder about oracle, what information are they taking from us? Because of they are storing your host machine IP, and then the box's IP, then you're NOT anonymous anymore..

Is there anybody that knows anything about this?

[scottgus1]

Virtualbox also runs DNA samples when you sleep, so Oracle has more data for the AI-controlled robot army that is being prepared for the world take-over. Two layers of extra thick aluminum foil (normally worn on the head, but for this purpose wrapped over the whole body) will reduce the success of the Virtualbox DNA sampling dll by 37%.



OK, facetiousness turned off. For now at least. A forum source code guru might let you know what the devs have written, though you might want to check for it yourself and build from source yourself. Try a full Wireshark scan while Virtualbox is running.

And you can turn off the update check, too.

Of course none of this would help on a Windows host. Microsoft is providing the weapons for the robot army.

But one thing can be relied on: the robots will be running Linux. Oracle Linux.

[mpack]

I'm seeing a lot of speculation about what companies might do, not much direct facts about VirtualBox.

There is absolutely no need to speculate: VirtualBox is open source, so if you have a question about what it does then you need only go look.

Also you should differentiate between the various components - e.g. manager program, VM, and the guest OS. To my knowledge the manager program only "calls home" if configured to do so in Preferences, i.e. the check for updates setting. The VM process does not call home at all. The guest OS will do its own thing which has nothing to do with VirtualBox (e.g. Ubuntu and Windows will check with their respective update servers and MS collects a ton of metrics about Win10). The Guest Additions will check if they are up to date, but AFAIK they don't "call home" for that, they just check the VirtualBox version running on the host.

So in answer to the question about the VPN, I'm not aware of any "call home" process at all.

[Jobe76]

Virtualbox also runs DNA samples when you sleep.

Oh, so that's why I've got strange needle marks when I wake up

No I was just wondering since I've seen a few discussion where people say "DON'T USE VIRTUAL BOX" if you want to be anonymous, but I can't really see why.

I mean, if you're running a Linux on the box, and in the Linux connects to a VPN, then shouldn't the host be able to see anything... or am I wrong?

[scottgus1]

a few discussion where people say "DON'T USE VIRTUAL BOX" if you want to be anonymous,

[citation needed] a la Wikipedia. Not for you, for them. In other words, make them prove it.

Fortunately, you could prove it too with a network scan. Don't forget the other network traffic Mpack mentioned.

[Jobe76]

Fortunately, you could prove it too with a network scan..

Network Scan?

[scottgus1]

Network Scan?

Try a full Wireshark scan while Virtualbox is running.

Note that I don't really know the ins and outs of network scanning, but a bit of research how to do it could be got from a web-search.

[Jobe76]

Try a full Wireshark scan while Virtualbox is running.

Yeah, I've actually tested that, and you can see everything, but if you're using a VPN in the box, you will only see encrypted data between the box and the VPN server..