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Qubes – Secure Desktop OS Using Security by Compartmentalization
- bespoke_engnr 12y agoI think I've seen this before, in a post somewhere by one of their developers. I think it was about how insecure X11 is, because any X11 app can listen for all keystrokes made by the user. AFAIK people jumped on that post as "it's a known property of X11, stop making drama about it."
- prohor 12y agoThere is a similar concept coming to Windows: http://www.bromium.com/innovations/micro-virtualization.html http://www.bromium.com/innovations/micro-virtualization.html
- csirac2 12y agoFrom what I've been hearing they seem to already have big customers using it. I wonder if it'll ever be available to individuals and small businesses. It's pretty cool in that it appears to have some tripwire-esque stuff so that you get useful logs when malware does try to do dodgy things in their sandbox. It sounds like it can alert the user with something like, "your browser might be compromised, start a new session" and everything is captured/saved so that admins can come back later to do forensics with the session that went bad.
- walterbell 12y agoTechnical info: http://www.slideshare.net/xen_com_mgr/xen-14203926 http://www.slideshare.net/xen_com_mgr/xen-14203926
- j_s 12y agoMicrosoft App-V has been around for 5+ years though it sounds like it would be a Docker to Bromium's Xen. Sandboxie was one of the original Windows application virtualization options 10 years ago. I was hoping something would become the 'Docker for Windows' but these programs are being snapped up by software security companies.
- smurfcity 12y agoSandboxie is still available, and free for home use (with a small 5 second nag screen to pay).
- ktown 12y agoMight want to check out spoon.net - they are working on containers for Windows. Been doing app virt for a long time. I use them for side by side browser testing : )
- leonxy 12y agoTake a look at cameyo.com
- EvanAnderson 12y agoThere was a good presentation from the Chief Security Architect at Bromium from DerbyCon last year: http://www.irongeek.com/i.php?page=videos/derbycon3/4303-sandboxes-from-a-pen-tester-s-view-rahul-kashyap http://www.irongeek.com/i.php?page=videos/derbycon3/4303-san... He absolutely tears apart application sandboxes like "Sandboxie".
- justincormack 12y agoThis article [1] is a good overview. [1] http://www.invisiblethingslab.com/resources/2014/Software_compartmentalization_vs_physical_separation.pdf http://www.invisiblethingslab.com/resources/2014/Software_co...
- mrottenkolber 12y agoWhile I am all for virtualizing, it doesn't help security. It just moves the exploit from your OS into your hypervisor. Even worse, you add a whole new level of exploitable code.
- spindritf 12y agoOf course it improves security. On Qubes, someone who can exploit your browser (pdf reader, word processor) doesn't automatically get free rein on your machine. They still need to escape Xen.
- csirac2 12y agoNot just apps, it even routes physical USB devices to specific VMs, which potentially mitigates BadUSB type attacks against the dom0. And I really appreciate that they've tried to solve XDMCP weaknesses.
- mrottenkolber 12y agoNope. If somebody exploits your PDF reader, they still have to circumvent the OS. Sound familiar? Now instead of one layer with hardware contact, you have two (assuming you want performance too). Twice the attack surface.
- amalcon 12y agoThis would be sound logic if existing desktop operating systems had actual good security models. In the real world, if someone exploits your PDF reader, they don't have to circumvent your OS: your OS hands over everything you can access, by design. One could argue that a better security model baked into the OS would make more sense than a virtualization hack, but the latter has the advantage of actually existing.
- Touche 12y agoWhat would be the better security model?
- phaer 12y ago> The Qubes Windows Tools are proprietary but we distribute the binaries for free with current Qubes OS releases. Out of curiosity: What's the reason for them being proprietary while the rest of the system seems to be free software?
- j_s 12y agoStep 3: profit!
- niutech 12y agoIsn't it the same as Sandboxie? http://www.sandboxie.com/ http://www.sandboxie.com/
- anth1y 12y agoQubes is an Xen-based Operating System while Sandboxie is an application for Windows.
- lawnchair_larry 12y agoThey are not at all similar.
- leonxy 12y ago:) btw if you're looking for virtualization of apps (not security), Cameyo is great.
- nnnnni 12y agoSo... my question is: How does this work with things like games or other hardware-acceleration-intensive programs? If there's no performance loss, great.
- eeZi 12y agoIt doesn't: https://qubes-os.org/wiki/UserFaq https://qubes-os.org/wiki/UserFaq
- smurfcity 12y ago3D graphics are not supported. It is listed in the FAQ, found at https://wiki.qubes-os.org/wiki/UserFaq https://wiki.qubes-os.org/wiki/UserFaq
- michaelmior 12y agoThis would perhaps be doable with something like VMGL[0]. [0] http://sysweb.cs.toronto.edu/vmgl http://sysweb.cs.toronto.edu/vmgl