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7/29/2017 What's the difference between a sandbox and a virtual machine?

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What's the difference between a sandbox and a virtual machine?

Helping people with computers... one answer at a time.

Ask Leo! » General Computing

Sandboxes and virtual machines share some characteristics, but they are fundamentally different

technologies. I'll look at both from a high level.

Sandbox versus virtual machine: can you provide a brief overview on the differences, advantages, and disadvantages?

•

Sandboxes and virtual machines are two different technologies that share just enough characteristics to

make them easily confused.

One could even confuse matters further by referring to a virtual machine as the ultimate sandbox. That

would be an accurate statement, but it really only stirs up the mud in what is already muddy water

without a little background.

Let's look at the three scenarios: the default case without either, a sandbox, and a virtual machine.

•

Windows on its own

Let's start with a conceptual view on how Windows and Windows applications operate at a very high

level:

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As you can see in the above diagram, applications running in Windows interact with the machine and with

you through Windows.

Windows manages access to the files and ondisk resources; it also manages access to the hardware

through the device drivers that are installed for your machine's specific hardware configuration.

A sandbox under Windows

In a sense, a sandbox is a container placed around an application running within Windows:

You'll note that one of the three applications in this example configuration is drawn as being within a

sandbox. Of particular note is that a portion of the "Files & Settings" used by that application are also

placed in that sandbox.

Therein lies the magic.

When you run an application within a sandbox, it continues to have access to everything that it would

were it not sandboxed. The primary difference is that anything created or changed by the sandboxed

application is:

Not visible outside of the sandbox; other Windows applications don't see it.

Not saved when the sandboxed application exits1.

The best example is simply that any malware that might have been downloaded and "installed" by the

sandboxed application is discarded when the application exits.

A virtual machine under Windows

A virtual machine, or VM, is an application that runs under Windows that creates an environment that

simulates a completely separate computer.

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In this diagram, the application on the left is a VM that's running a completely separate copy of Windows.

In a very real sense, it's a "machine within a machine." Windows running on the actual PC is often

referred to as the "host" operating system, while any VMs running on it are referred to as "guest"

operating systems.

Within a VM, applications continue to access the world around them through that VM's copy of Windows.

That "world" includes that VM's own virtual hard disk on which files and settings are stored.

The VM also includes its own set of virtual device drivers that behave as if they're interfacing to actual

hardware. In reality, they're mimicking the presence of actual hardware and talking to the host copy of

Windows to gain access to the real hardware.

Everything that happens in the VM stays within the VM. It behaves exactly as if it were a completely

separate physical machine.

That implies that any downloads, changes, updates, installations ... anything ... that is created or saved

within the virtual machine is only accessible through the VM in some way.

And if you delete the VM, it's like getting rid of a PC. Everything on the virtual hard disk is erased.

Multiple virtual machines

One of the best ways to demonstrate virtual machine technology is a scenario such as this one:

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This illustrates a single PC running three virtual machines.

The PC itself is running Windows 7

One VM is running Windows XP and would appear as a window within the host Windows 7

machine.

One VM is running another copy of Windows 7 and would appear as a window within the host

Windows 7 machine.

One VM is running Ubuntu Linux and would appear as a window within the host Windows 7

machine.

One physical machine running three different virtual machines simultaneously.

Each virtual machine is completely separate as if it was on completely separate hardware except that

it's not.

This is actually more common than you might imagine. For example, socalled "cloud servers" are nothing

more than virtual machines. As I write this, the Ask Leo! website is in reality a modest virtual machine on

a virtual hosting provider. I have no idea what the underlying hardware actually is the virtual machine

can't look "out" to its host. My assumption is that it's a fairly beefy piece of hardware on which several

virtual machines are hosted.

Pros and Cons

Sandbox

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Sandboxing is typically lightweight and fairly easy to set up and use. I say "fairly" because there are

complexities, most notably about how to get desired changes to be preserved outside of the sandbox.

For example, if your browser is sandboxed (the most common scenario), getting a downloaded file that

you want to use outside the sandbox may take a few extra steps. Other changes that you might want to

preserve while you're in the sandbox can also be slightly more complicated to retain.

Virtual Machine

Virtual machines are almost certainly not lightweight. You'll need disk space to allocate to the virtual hard

drive and you'll also need to make choices about how much of your computer's RAM you want to allocate

to the VM while it's running, among other things.

When discussing the characteristics of a virtual machine, the phrase that keeps coming up is "just as if it

were a separate physical machine". And when looking at what a VM can and cannot do and what it takes

to set one up, that's the best rule of thumb to remember.

Setting up a VM typically involves installing an OS from scratch. In the multipleVM example above, each

virtual machine would need to be set up just as if they were separate physical machines.

A virtual machine and its host are effectively isolated from each other. A common way to copy files to and

from the virtual machine is to set up network access on that machine just as if it was separate physical

machine.

As you can see, a VM is perfect if you want a completely isolated "virtual" second (or third, or fourth)

machine. It's also perfect, particularly if you want that machine to run a different operating system than

its host. For example, I no longer have a physical machine that has Windows XP installed on it, but I have

virtual machines that I can fire up at will on my Windows 7 desktop that provide me with a copy of

Windows XP to work with.

In fact, that's all that "XP Mode" on Windows 7 really is a virtual machine in which Windows XP can run.

Specific Tools

The most popular sandboxing tool by far is called "Sandboxie". Originally developed as a Sandbox for IE

(hence the name), it's grown into a powerful and flexible general purpose sandboxing solution.

I use Parallels Workstation for Windows as my virtual machine technology. I regularly run copies of

Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP, and Ubuntu Linux in virtual machines for testing, doing demos,

and answering your questions. Parallels is perhaps best known for their VM technology that allows you to

run Windows on your Mac computers.

http://go.ask-leo.com/sandboxie

http://go.ask-leo.com/parallels

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VMWare is another popular VM provider. Of note is that there are many preconfigured VMWare

"appliances" that you can simply download and run. For example, you can download a readytorun

VMWare appliance that is Ubuntu Linux without having to go through the steps of actually setting up the

operating system.

VirtualBox is another VM alternative that I've only played with briefly, but it's free and appears well

supported and quite robust.

Next steps

I plan to dive into Sandboxie in more detail at some point in the future, as it can be a useful tool in your

arsenal against malware. You needn't wait; you might consider checking it out.

Virtual machines aren't for everyone. If you know it's what you need and you have the hardware to

support it, it's incredibly cool technology.

But it's overkill for most daytoday usage.

1: Specific sandbox implementations may provide mechanisms to transfer or save data out of the

sandbox, but the important concept here is that, unless such steps are taken, any changes made by the

sandboxed application are lost.

Article C5040 January 14, 2012 « »

Leo A. Notenboom has been playing with computers since he was required to take a programming class in 1976. An 18 year

career as a programmer at Microsoft soon followed. After "retiring" in 2001, Leo started Ask Leo! in 2003 as a

place for answers to common computer and technical questions. More about Leo.