2 security questions...

Discussions related to using VirtualBox on Linux hosts.
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DennyCrane
Posts: 16
Joined: 4. May 2008, 04:14

2 security questions...

Post by DennyCrane »

Hey, I was wondering 2 things:
1) How great is the potential that the guest OS and/or Virtualbox could be compromised in such a way that effects the host OS?
2) Is there any reason to keep a firewall on the guest OS if the host already has a firewall?
Sasquatch
Volunteer
Posts: 17798
Joined: 17. Mar 2008, 13:41
Primary OS: Debian other
VBox Version: VirtualBox+Oracle ExtPack
Guest OSses: Windows XP, Windows 7, Linux
Location: /dev/random

Post by Sasquatch »

1) It is possible to render the Host useless if you have only one core in your processor. It can give your processor such a load that there is nothing left for the host (of course, there should be some security build in for scenario's like this so a VM can never put the Host to a crawl). There are other things where the Guest can affect the Host. One of them is a virus written to detect if it's running on a VM and attack the Host.

2) It's always usefull to run a firewall on any system, virtual or not. As with VB, it will look like VB itself is accessing the internet for a host firewall and not some kind of virus or other malacious software.
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Online User Manual: A must read if you want to know what we're talking about.
Howto: Install Linux Guest Additions
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