Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Windows hosts.
socratis
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Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by socratis »

@Hanzaplast and everyone coming here:

Please include your host's and your antivirus' complete version details. Full details please.

Thank you...
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Hanzaplast
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Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by Hanzaplast »

Hello
HWINFO.jpg
HWINFO.jpg (123.78 KiB) Viewed 8483 times
(RAM = 4 X 4GB)
Hope that helps.
"If we were to employ violent means, we would have nothing left to defend."
(Dalaï Lama)
socratis
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Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by socratis »

Thanks Hanzaplast. I was looking simply for
  • Windows 7 Ultimate, 64-bit , build 7601
  • Avira 15.0.32.12
but yours will do too... ;)
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kaalra
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Joined: 7. Nov 2017, 10:10

Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by kaalra »

Hi, just posting a reply because this worked for my problem (for now at least) too.

My system:
-Windows 10 enterprise, 64-bit, Build 10586.104
-Antivirus: F-Secure Client security 12.00
-Virtual Box 5.1.30
(-Vagrant 2.0.0)

My problem:
-Unable to perform headless start (with vagrant) after reboot.
-I was able to perform normal start though, via vBox gui
-Running "repair"&reboot from the installer fixed the problem until the next reboot.
-Hardening error was Process image name does not match the exectuable we found: \Device\HarddiskVolume2\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox\VBoxHeadless.exe vs \Device\HarddiskVolume2\PROGRA~1\Oracle\VIRTUA~1\VBOXHE~1.EXE.
-Unfortunately I don't have the log anymore

I can verify later if it keeps on working.

EDIT(Nov.9): Works like a charm!
-One thing I remebered, I halted the VM always before the reboot, but when the host started, the VM had changed state from poweroff -> aborted. I was thinking it might help to solve why this fix works.
bleviton
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Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by bleviton »

Thanks so much djex81. This fixed my problem that has kept me from running any VMs for the last two months.
My host machine is a Windows 7 64 bit laptop. Don't know what changed two months ago, but after that attempting to start any of my VMs resulted in a timeout error after 60 seconds. Tried multiple uninstalls/reinstalls, both recommended older versions and newest versions, none of it helped. Also ran sfc /scannow today - it found and fixed some issues but didn't fix the VirtualBox issue. This procedure fixed it :) .
bob1234
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Joined: 23. Jan 2018, 05:23

Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by bob1234 »

I was experiencing a Hardening error today on a Windows 10 host. My existing install of VirtualBox was working fine, but a windows 10 update + reboot caused new hardening errors.

I just thought I'd include the solution that helped me in case anyone else was reading this thread and stuck with similar strange errors.

I resolved the problem by taking the following steps:
Uninstall existing Virtualbox via the Apps & features screen in windows 10.
Download the latest Virtualbox (5.2.6 r 1020293).
Right click the installer and Run as Administrator.
During the install, uncheck the box for Bridged networking.
Finish the install.

The next time I launched Virtual Box the hardening error disappeared. Note, in the past windows update broke Virtual box before, this procedure also worked, but at the time I had to uncheck Host only networking.

I have no idea why having these features enabled can cause such severe errors that the VM does not work at all. Hopefully in the future these type of workarounds are not required.
mpack
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Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by mpack »

I very much doubt that unchecking either "Bridged Networking" or "Host Only networking" options was necessary. Most likely your fix was simply to reinstall VirtualBox (using "Run as administrator" to ensure that drivers can be installed), as is often the case after a Win10 feature update.
socratis
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Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by socratis »

bob1234 wrote:During the install, uncheck the box for Bridged networking.
bob1234 wrote:at the time I had to uncheck Host only networking.
Then something is messing up with your networking and/or driver installation. The most common culprit is an overzealous antivirus. Uninstall all 3rd party antivirus and try again.

Or what mpack said, who posted as I was trying to post as well... ;)
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bleviton
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Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by bleviton »

Sorry, posted too soon. After this fix, my VMs will start, but only if it's the first thing I do after booting up the host :( . Apparently something else that I normally run (Outlook, Chrome, etc.) is interfering. I'll have to try after starting each of these to see which is apparently causing the issue.

>> Follow-up: It seems connecting to my corporate network is the problem. At home, I have to start any VMs before connecting to my work network by VPN; in the office I have to disconnect the network cable and disable wifi before bootup to do the same. The VMs will then stay running after conecting to the corporate network. I'll pass this on to the corporate IT department and see if they can do anything about it (though my colleague on the same network does not have any such problem with VirtualBox).
bleviton wrote:Thanks so much djex81. This fixed my problem that has kept me from running any VMs for the last two months.
My host machine is a Windows 7 64 bit laptop. Don't know what changed two months ago, but after that attempting to start any of my VMs resulted in a timeout error after 60 seconds. Tried multiple uninstalls/reinstalls, both recommended older versions and newest versions, none of it helped. Also ran sfc /scannow today - it found and fixed some issues but didn't fix the VirtualBox issue. This procedure fixed it :) .
MrBreaker
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Joined: 17. May 2018, 11:42

Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by MrBreaker »

THANK YOUUUU works fine with my system as well.
Only want to add something that might seem confusing. I probably have missed it and is for sure listed somewhere, and very obvious to the most, however before you can use the VM's you need to start the VBoxDrv service else you can get an error.
I've created a little script that I start manually with the following content:
sc start vboxdrv
I run this script the first time I use VBox after every reboot and everyting works fine.
u81
Posts: 1
Joined: 25. Jun 2018, 13:18

Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by u81 »

This solution does indeed work - Win10 Home x64 - VirtualBox 5.2.12 - Guest XPsp3 - No External Anti-Virus - Just Windows defender

However, I've found the following issues still remain:
  • The first time after reinstalling VirtualBox and having changed the Registry start entry to 3 > then shut down and start > open cmd and type sc query vboxdrv - status was Running.
    I then shutdown the machine again and restarted > the second boot the status did come up as stopped.
    Ran VirtualBox and it ran fine.
    Then I created a shortcut to the VM > double clicked the shortcut and the Hardening error came up again.
    Restarted the machine and then again tried the shortcut > still get the hardening error. "VirtualBox - Error In supR3HardenedWinReSpawn" - Error relaunching VirtualBox VM process:5 (rc=-104) ... VERR_INVALID_NAME (-104) - Invalid (malformed) file/ path name.
    Opened the main VirtualBox GUI and was able to start the VM fine.
    I restarted the machine again a few times but can only get the VM to run if I run it from the main VB GUI - I always get a Hardening Error using the shortcut.
    One thing that I did note is that on a fresh start, typing sc query vboxdrv in cmd > the status reads Running > I checked the registry entry and it still is at 3.
Attached is a zipped Hardening Log.

Many thanks for the help once again.
Attachments
VBoxHardening.zip
(23.16 KiB) Downloaded 59 times
vmbai
Posts: 1
Joined: 8. Aug 2018, 10:54

Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by vmbai »

Thank you! It's useful for me. I can use virtualbox again.
hornetbzz
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Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by hornetbzz »

 Edit:  : Thx, but did not work first shot for me.

OS: MS windows 10 Home, Version 1803, OS Build 17134.441
VBox : Version 5.2.22 r126460 (Qt5.6.2)

Before applying the above workaround, I could not run my VMs with :
ExitCode=0xc0000005
(See my other post)

After applying the above workaround, I could not run my VMs with :
Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: MachineWrap
 Edit: : it worked (i.e. I could run my VMs), after I also applied the change into VboxDrv.inf, with :

Code: Select all

[VBoxDrv_Service]
DisplayName    = %VBoxDrv.SVCDESC%
ServiceType    = 1                  ; SERVICE_KERNEL_DRIVER
StartType      = 3                  ; SERVICE_DEMAND_START
; StartType      = 1                  ; autostart to fix Vista problem
ErrorControl   = 1                  ; SERVICE_ERROR_NORMAL
ServiceBinary  = %12%\VBoxDrv.sys
[EDIT2]: After reboot, same situation, not possible to open any VM, exiting with the same error code as above.
With Windows 10 Home edition, there is not gpedit.msc to edit the local group polcy and disable Windows Defender Antirvirus permanently. So I installed and ran it as described here.
Result: Still unable to open any VM. Still searching (I don't have antivir, only ccleaner as 3rd party software, but DRM Fasoo is installed, corporately). 
 
djex81
Posts: 5
Joined: 16. Mar 2017, 23:07

Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by djex81 »

Hello All,

Glad to hear the workaround I posted helped some. Just updating this thread to add that version 5.2.26 r128414 still has this issue. I just recently upgraded from 5.1 and encountered this issue again. The workaround still does work however.

Also to add to others comments about using a VM shortcut instead of running the VM from the main VirtualBox GUI. Since we are setting the startup option for the VBoxDrv.sys driver to start on demand we need to first open the main VirtualBox GUI and launch a VM from there in order for the driver to be loaded. After that you should be able to use any shortcut you created to run a VM.
ndelong
Posts: 1
Joined: 21. Mar 2019, 17:13

Re: Hardening Fix (workaround) For Error After Install and Restart

Post by ndelong »

I created an account just to post this, because it was driving me nuts and I hope my solution helps someone. We just installed VirtualBox 6.0.4 on (4) Windows 7 Pro machines yesterday and got the single VM we needed running on each machine without issue. Today I received a report that two of the machines were unable to start the VM's. My research led me to this thread, and part of the solution was indeed setting the startup to option 3 (delayed) via regedit. However, I think maybe because the users are running non-admin accounts, the vboxdrv service wasn't automatically starting on VM launch. So my workaround was:

1. As admin, run regedit and change the VBoxDrv start value to 3.
2. Create a batch file containing "sc start vboxdrv" (without the quotes).
3. As admin, open Task Scheduler and create a new task. I named it "Start VBoxDrv Service".
4. Set the task to run as the local system account.
5. Create a trigger to run any time any user logs on.
6. Point the task at the batch file.
7. Save the task.
8. Reboot the machine and test (multiple times).

I was able to do this *without* having to uninstall and reinstall VirtualBox. I simply performed the steps above and it works.

Based on another thread (cant post URLs as a new user), I believe the culprit is the IBM Trusteer Endpoint software, as only the machines containing that program were affected by this issue. Unfortunately we are required by the banks that we do business with to run the IBM Trusteer software, so removing it wasn't an option.

I hope this helps someone else.

-Nate D.
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