Hardening issue? Can no longer start any VMs after many years of using!

[yesavboxuser]

Hi,
In short: I've been using virtualbox for many years with both Windows and linux hosts without issue, but I didn't know since when (must less than a few months ago), now when I start a VM it'll give me an error message like the following:

Failed to open a session for the virtual machine linux-mint-xfce.

The virtual machine 'linux-mint-xfce' has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1). More details may be available in '...\linux-mint-xfce\Logs\VBoxHardening.log'.

Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: MachineWrap
Interface: IMachine {85cd948e-a71f-4289-281e-0ca7ad48cd89}

System info:

operating system : Windows 7 x64 Service Pack 1 build 7601
processors : 4x Intel(R) Core(TM) i5-5200U CPU @ 2.20GHz
physical memory : 3086/7888 MB (free/total)
display mode : 1920x1080, 32 bit

I went through the Diagnosing VirtualBox Hardening Issues post (sorry, but new forum member cannot post the link), and tried the following:
1 - sfc /scannow
There were no error.
2 - Aside from the current 'v5.2.8-121009', tried re-installing older versions:
VirtualBox-5.1.14-112924-Win.exe
VirtualBox-5.1.30-118389-Win.exe
VirtualBox-5.2.4-119785-Win.exe
3 - Scanned the computer with MSE.

[yesavboxuser]

Attached VBoxHardening.log (compressed)

[mpack]

As always, check what happens if you disable 3D acceleration, and disable AV. You seem to get a long way into this boot, so my guess is a host graphics driver problem (NVidia sometimes neglects to sign their DLLs) - this naturally will not be fixed by reinstalling VirtualBox.

[yesavboxuser]

@mpack,
The linux guess doesn't have 3D acceleration enabled. And I went ahead to disabled the 3D acceleration for the win 7 guest, still no luck; disabled 2D acceleration, still the same error message popping up.

I have have tried reinstalling Virtualbox.

Anyone has alternative advises? Thanks.

[socratis]

I have have tried reinstalling Virtualbox. Anyone has alternative advises?

Start going through each and every system-modifying software that you have installed. Even the most innocuous ones, like Google Chrome, can sometime interfere, since they're installing system services(!).

If that fails, re-install Windows and your apps, and see where it starts to fail...

[FlavioGCMelo]

I'm having the same problem. I used the VM last week, but last night when I tried to start it, this error message was show.

Error relaunching VirtualBox VM Process: 5
Command line: '.0eaff89-4bdd-042d-2e72-669728efd737-suplib-3rdchild --comment "OL7 Clean" --startvm ece38a3f-3b48-4143-8d8a-24f95cdd8d97--no-startfm-errormsgbox "--sup-hardering-log=C:\VMs\OL7 Clean\Logs\VBoxHardening.log"'(rc=-104)
Please try ressssinstalling VirtualBox

where: supR3HardenedWinReSawn what: 5 VERR_INVALID_NAME (-104) - Invalid (malformed) file/path name.