[Solved] Can't Update Past VirtualBox-4.3.12-93733-Win

[mattehring]

When I update, every time I try to start any box, I get an error message "The instruction at XxXXXXXXXX referenced memory at XxXXXXXXXX the memory could not be written. Click OK to terminate the program". Only way to fix is to downgrade.

Host machine is Windows 7 64 bit, i7, 16GB ram, plenty of storage

Things I've tried so far after some searching around:

- Disable 3D / 2D acceleration in guest
- Disable Audio in guest box
- Disable USB in guest box
- Update Drivers on host box
- Install a fresh copy of Windows 7 64-bit, updated Windows and drivers
- Tried the same box on updated VirtualBox on colleagues machine, no issues

Here are the logs - thanks for any ideas / help in advance

EDIT: attached log as zip file

[mpack]

Please post logs as zipped attachments. Truncated pasted text is not very useful.

The general answer to your question is that VirtualBox introduced additional security features in 4.3.14 and later, whereby all "foreign" DLLs that inject themselves into the VirtualBox execution space are inspected and rejected if they are not signed. The "VBoxStartup.log" file will normally tell you which DLL is causing the problem. The crash you see would be caused by something else crashing because of the missing DLL.

The solution is to find out what third party modules VirtualBox is objecting to and then either (a) get rid of them, (b) replace it with updated, signed versions.

See the "Security" discussion at the top of this forum.

[mattehring]

Thank you for your reply!

The forums prevent me from posting links so soon after account creation. I can't post a zipped attachment.

Your reply reinforced my feeling this has to do with a policy on my account preventing me from installing later versions of virtualbox. I will try to get IT dept. to give me local admin access for a while to get this resolved and see what happens.

EDIT: what part of the log is truncated?

[mpack]

The forums prevent me from posting links so soon after account creation. I can't post a zipped attachment.

The forums stop you posting offsite links, not local attachments.

Besides being truncated, it was also the wrong log btw. It's VBoxStartup.log that you need to zip and attach.

[mattehring]

Correct log attached. Thanks.

[mpack]

Nothing in the log jumps out at me, so I'll just list the following common causes of problems.

1. Using a hacked theme DLL (uxtheme.dll). VirtualBox detects that the DLL has been hacked, an obvious security issue. Solution: either uninstall the theme hack software, or put a copy of the original unhacked DLL in the \Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox folder.
2. Windows update trashing the certificates database. I don't think you have this problem, OTOH it is usually Win7 hosts which suffer this probem.
3. Conflict with resident antivirus. Test this by temporarily uninstalling it. If this is the problem then check for updates, or different AV.

[mattehring]

Thanks for looking into the log file and providing info. I'll post back if I come up with the solution to this issue.

EDIT: update to troubleshooting my case:

Using a hacked theme DLL (uxtheme.dll). VirtualBox detects that the DLL has been hacked, an obvious security issue. Solution: either uninstall the theme hack software, or put a copy of the original unhacked DLL in the \Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox folder.
Does not apply in my case

Windows update trashing the certificates database. I don't think you have this problem, OTOH it is usually Win7 hosts which suffer this probem.
Uninstalling said update (KB3004394) and restart did not resolve the issue.

Confict with resident antivirus. Test this by temporarily uninstalling it. If this is the problem then check for updates, or different AV.
I will have to get IT dept. to do this. First I will try getting them to install under local admin account.

[mattehring]

Turned out to be caused by some dandy software IT dept. installed called Avecto that was reeking havoc (solution 3 by mpack, ty). After uninstalling that everything started working fine.

[mpack]

I'm glad you got to the bottom of it.

Just a note that you can't fix the damage caused by KB3004394 by uninstalling the patch after it did its work. Gladly however it doesn't matter, as you don't have that problem anyway.