VBox Hardening Error Launching XP VM

[Richard Lowe]

I work for an IT services company. One of our clients has a very old Windows XP laptop but wanted to upgrade to a newer machine. However, he uses an old application that only runs under XP, and communicates with external equipment via an RS-232 interface. I decided to use Oracle Virtual Box to create an XP VM on a new Windows 10 laptop to allow him to upgrade.

I installed Oracle VirtualBox 6.1.14 on his new HP Windows 10 laptop a month ago, created a Windows XP Mode VM, installed his application software, and also connected a USB to RS-232C adapter on the host. It all worked well, I documented it all for him and thought that was the job done...

Last week he called me as he could no longer get the XP VM to launch. The error message is:

Error relaunching VirtualBox VM process: 5
Command line:
'60eaff78-4bdd-042d-2e72-669728efd737-suplid-3rdchild --comment XP --startvm 4ee302a7-3dda-4b46-a374-133c16732ae0 --no-startvm-errormsgbox --sup-hardening-log=C:\VirtualBox\VirtualBoxVMs\XP\Logs\VBoxHardening.log' (rc=-104)
Please try reinstalling VirtualBox

where: supR3HardenedWinReSpawn what: 5
VERR_INVALID_NAME (-104) - Invalid (malformed) file/path name

If I click the Details button on the message it gives:

The virtual machine 'XP' has terminated unexpectedly during startup with exit code 1 (0x1).More details may be available in 'C:\VirtualBox\VirtualBoxVMs\XP\Logs\VBoxHardening.log'
Result Code: E_FAIL (0x80004005)
Component: MachineWrap
Interface: IMachine {85632c68-b5bb-4316-a900-5eb28d3413df}

On checking his PC I see he had installed Norton 360. I checked these forums and found a post titled "VBox Hardening and Norton Antivirus". NOTE: I would post the direct link but as I've only just joined this forum it will not allow me to post links till I have already made one post! I took these steps:

1. I uninstalled Norton 360 both using the normal "Programs & Features" method, then after restarting I ran the Norton Removal Tool as well just to be sure. I restarted again.
2. Uninstalled VirtualBox and rebooted
3. Reinstalled VirtualBox.
4. Tried launching the XP virtual machine again, and it worked.
5. Rebooted the laptop.
6. Tried launching the XP virtual machine again, and it failed. The reboot had broken something and the VM will no longer launch.

I repeated this again to confirm the behaviour - a reinstall of VirtualBox will fix the problem, the VM will launch, but as soon as the computer is restarted it breaks it again. I also read the Hardening article titled "Diagnosing VirtualBox Hardening Issues" and tried several things. I've also tried a system restore, all to no avail. I've attached the VBoxHardening.log file in this post as requested in the Hardening Issues post. Can anyone point me in the right direction please?

[scottgus1]

Sometimes, as it appears in this case, the hardening log can't show what is causing the trouble. Which means we'd need to guess at the cause by looking over the software on the host PC.

You've found Diagnosing VirtualBox Hardening Issues, good. The post on Exit Code 1 also says to look at the last paragraph in the previous post, whish highlights "web-safe" (otherwise known as "nanny") software, like HP ProtectTools, Trusteer Rapport, other such stuff. You'll have to go though the software on the host PC and think of anything that tries to keep the user "safe" while on the internet. One good thing you have going for you, they're not using 3rd-party antivirus, just the built-in Windows Defender, which does not interfere with Virtualbox at the hardening level.