The risks of getting a virus from a virtual machine

[Hansome duded]

Hey, so I was gonna richard around with a virtual machine (Windows XP or Windows 8) and I was wondering if anyone of the viruses, malware, any malicious software, etc (like Bonzi Buddy) could leak outside of the virtual machine onto my computer.

[Ad Bot]

[HissingWalnuts]

I'm fairly certain the point of a virtual machine is to make it so it doesn't spread, however hackers can, and will find a way.

[PurpleMetro]

No.

[Ipquarx]

A virtual machine is a special type of software called a sandbox. In order for a virus to affect anything that's outside of the sandbox, it must "escape" it. There are no known viruses as far as I'm aware of that have the capability to escape a sandbox. In fact, many have sandboxing detection so that it won't have any affect on a sandbox so it can stay hidden.

It's 100% impossible if the people coded the sandbox right. No matter how good the hacker is.

[Rainzx¹]

Its not really worth making a virus that is capable of escaping.
Not very many people do this.

[Val]

It's completely possible but impractical for most virus creators, since their software is typically targeted at tech-illiterate people who probably don't even know how to use a sandbox.  I'd say you have nothing to worry about.

[Satan From Wreck-It-Ralph]

im p sure there's malware out there that can spread over LAN

[dargereldren]

im p sure there's malware out there that can spread over LAN

Solution: Disable network access (and file shares, or at least make them read-only^?) before running them.

[77x5ghost2]

off topic: how the forget do you install windows 98 on virtual box


i don't think you can get a virus out of a virtual machine

[Aidan10]

ExPaNd DoNgE

[K3k0m@n]

It depends, When running viruses make sure shared folders is off, and make sure stuff like homegroups and stuff like that is off, just to make sure the virtual machine has no interation with your normal computer.

[otto-san]

yeah just make sure shared folders and the sort are off and that it doesn't have a direct path of some description to your network and it should be fine