Risk of sharing a folder with a Win2000 VM?

[DougInToronto]

I plan to use a legacy program in a Windows 2000 VM to edit data and create PDFs.

Then the files will be transferred to a SharePoint site via a shared folder on the VM's Windows 10 host. The VM’s network adaptor will be disabled. The only intentional traffic in/out of the VM will be data (.csv, .xls, .jpg) and PDFs through the shared folder.

Could sharing that folder significantly increase the hacking risk to the W10 host or my SharePoint site?

I’ve also thought about using drag & drop between the host and VM, but intuitively it seems riskier.

[FranceBB]

So essentially the VM (Windows 2000 guest) won't be connected to the internet and the only thing it's gonna have is a shared folder with the Windows 10 host and from there the host syncs the folder with SharePoint in the cloud?

No problem at all, don't worry, Windows 2000 won't compromise your network as it won't effectively be part of your network.
The only way it has to communicate with the external world is through that shared folder, but I would imagine that the Windows 10 host already has an antivirus and a firewall, so the traffic would be filtered anyway.
No worries.

Also please use the Virtualbox shared folder instead of actually sharing the folder via SMBv1 in an internal network as using the Virtualbox driver is safer.

[DougInToronto]

Thanks so much for this.

You're right, the only communications pathway available to the W2k guest will be the folder that it shares with its W10 host. The share to that folder is made by virtualbox. It is not a network share.

Only the W10 host communicates with sharepoint.

My knowledge of virus coding is pretty much based on watching Keannu Reeves getting chased around in the Matrix movies. So I didn't know whether the share might be used as a "tunnel" for code to infect the vulnerable guest - and then spread back into the host. But you're right, the host is protected by Defender av & firewall.

I appreciate that advice (especially after my question hung out for a week in the wilderness with no comments). I had read some posts about this dating to 2018-2019 but they were 5 years old and were not quite the same as my situation. Your comment is very reassuring.

[FranceBB]

No worries, I'm happy to help.
By the way, you're right, a guest can infect an host, so if you were to use Windows 2000 in the wild, connected to the internet via bridged network and without an antivirus with updated definitions, then sure, you could get infected and pass it on to the host.
In your case however it's very different.
The guest isn't connected to the internet, so it can't be infected.
The only way for the guest to be infected is the shared folder, but if a virus is there it means that it has already infected the host, so you would have a munch bigger problem anyway eheheheh
Anyway, yeah, don't worry about this, as long as the host has a proper antivirus and firewall and the guest isn't connected to internet, you're gonna be totally fine.

P.s for me Keannu Reeves will always be John Wick.

[DougInToronto]

I missed your reply, so I'm days late....but thank you again.
Your comment makes perfect sense.
And lol yes Keannu Reeves makes a far better John Wick. Less gimmicks, more reality.