Sandboxie

Sandboxie Plus (formerly Sandboxie) is an open-source OS-level virtualization solution for Microsoft Windows. It started out as a sandboxing solution that creates an isolated operating environment in which applications can run without permanently modifying the local system. This virtual environment allows for controlled testing of untrusted programs and web surfing. Sandboxie Plus enhances the original Sandboxie by adding multiple sandboxes, per-sandbox snapshots, and full OS-level virtualization.

After various ownership transitions (Sophos acquired Invincea which acquired Sandboxie from the original author, Ronen Tzur), Sophos eventually dropped support and released it as open-source. David Xanatos took over the project and expanded it with Sandboxie Plus. However, a few of the newly developed features are only available to project supporters with a valid "supporter certificate".

History

Sandboxie was initially released in 2004 as a tool for sandboxing Internet Explorer. Over time, the program was expanded to support other web browsers and eventually, arbitrary apps.

In December 2013, Invincea announced the acquisition of Sandboxie. The original developer Ronen Tzur further announced he would no longer be involved with the program. ^{/sup> /sup>}

In February 2017, Sophos announced the acquisition of Invincea. Invincea posted an assurance in Sandboxie's website that for the time being Sandboxie's development and support would continue as normal.

Version 4.02 introduced full support for x64 of Windows. with the exception of Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, which was never supported.

Windows XP SP3 was supported up to version 5.22, after which support for XP was dropped. In September 2019, Sandboxie version 5.31.4 was released under a freeware license "with plans to transition it to an open source tool". The previous commercial license still applied to customers with active licenses until their license expired.

Downtime

In April 2019, the official site was shut down, preventing downloads, installations and purchases, which prompted the creation of a temporary forum in the company's own domain.

In May 2019, the official site returned with the original forums permanently shut down in favor of Sophos' own forums, which were later shut down as well. Between May and September 2019 (when Sandboxie became freeware), the purchase options were still missing.

In response to the announcement of the closure of the Sandboxie website, software developer David Berdik scraped the site's contents and published the archive on GitHub on May 10, 2020.

Open-source

In April 2020, Sophos released the source code (as the source code-only version 5.40) under the GPL 3.0 license. Sophos stated that they would no longer be involved in the development of Sandboxie and that the open-source community would have to continue development instead.

Sandboxie Plus

Sandboxie Plus is an augmented version of Sandboxie. It has been in development since early 2020. The first stable version 1.0 of Sandboxie Plus was made available on 25 December 2021. Sandboxie Plus is a full OS-level virtualization solution and includes numerous improvements over the original Sandboxie:

* ability for more granular access control rules, and privacy mode boxes that protect user data from illegitimate access
* ''app compartment'' mode that provides less isolation but higher compatibility
* per-box application firewall based on Windows Filtering Platform
* modern Qt-based UI with dark mode and built-in support for many advanced options
* per-sandbox snapshots
* many security fixes and a hardened lockdown mode
* support for ARM64-based platforms (starting with v1.5.0)

While Sandboxie Plus remains free to use for personal use, a few of the newly developed features are only available to project supporters with a valid "supporter certificate".

Until version 0.4.5, antivirus software, including Microsoft Defender Antivirus, falsely flagged Sandboxie Plus. To clear this false flag, the Sandboxie Plus developer had to pay Microsoft for a digital certificate, which he raised thanks to donors on Patreon. Version 0.5.0 was the first digitally signed version of Sandboxie Plus.

Reception

Sandboxie was included in Brothersoft's 2010 Editors Pick list. In November 2011, Gizmo's Freeware gave Sandboxie a rating of 9 out of 10 stars and included it in their Editors' Choice List as the "Best Free Browser Protection Utility". Softonic has given Sandboxie a rating of 8 out of 10 with Elena Santos stating in her review that "Sandboxie is a handy tool to test untrustworthy software without putting your system in danger."

See also

* Shade sandbox
* Deep Freeze
* Google Native Client, running native code in a sandbox in a web browser
* iCore Virtual Accounts
* Windows SteadyState

References

External links

*
*
* {{webarchive, url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130429072246/http://vallejo.cc/48, title=Sandboxie Internals
Sandboxie-plus: GitHub files

Utilities for Windows
Windows security software