ATTN Windows Users - run new coins in a Sandbox

[fenican]

It is essential for safety that you run new coins in a safe sandboxed environment.

I am using this product:

http://www.sandboxie.com/

I have no affiliation with sandboxie but thought I would put this up as a public service announcement so people stop having their wallets stolen

[bengx]

Mmm good idea. Will check it out. Should I.. run it in a sandbox to make sure nothing funny happens too?

[WindMaster]

It is essential for safety that you run new coins in a safe sandboxed environment.

I am using this product:

http://www.sandboxie.com/

I have no affiliation with sandboxie but thought I would put this up as a public service announcement so people stop having their wallets stolen

Keep in mind that Sandboxie does nothing to prevent sandboxed programs from reading any file on your computer that they wish (or at least that are readable by applications on your computer in general), it just restricts where they can *write* files.  That means a program running under Sandboxie will be able to read your Bitcoin or Litecoin wallet.dat files all day long.  As well as your web browser history, saved passwords, cookies, etc..  Calling it "sandboxed" may be providing a false sense of security..

The correct answer here is to run new coins in a VM (virtual machine) instead that is completely isolated from your PC.  VirtualBox is free, if you have nothing better.

[MrWizard]

It is essential for safety that you run new coins in a safe sandboxed environment.

I am using this product:

http://www.sandboxie.com/

I have no affiliation with sandboxie but thought I would put this up as a public service announcement so people stop having their wallets stolen

Keep in mind that Sandboxie does nothing to prevent sandboxed programs from reading any file on your computer that they wish (or at least that are readable by applications on your computer in general), it just restricts where they can *write* files.  That means a program running under Sandboxie will be able to read your Bitcoin or Litecoin wallet.dat files all day long.  As well as your web browser history, saved passwords, cookies, etc..  Calling it "sandboxed" may be providing a false sense of security..

The correct answer here is to run new coins in a VM (virtual machine) instead that is completely isolated from your PC.  VirtualBox is free, if you have nothing better.

Correct me if I am wrong but you cannot mine with a GPU in a VM.     Does not the VM emulate a generic type graphics adapter?

[aa]

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[MrWizard]

You are running the wallet in the VM.

Got it!  Thanks.

Edit: p.s.  The VM could/should be linux.  Linux uses less RAM than a Windows install and easier to build the *coind.exe
Edit2:  I love Mint version of Linux, but my question is; is there a very lightweight distro of Linux to install/build/run coin wallets?

[cannonfodder]

Keep in mind that Sandboxie does nothing to prevent sandboxed programs from reading any file on your computer that they wish (or at least that are readable by applications on your computer in general), it just restricts where they can *write* files.  That means a program running under Sandboxie will be able to read your Bitcoin or Litecoin wallet.dat files all day long.  As well as your web browser history, saved passwords, cookies, etc..  Calling it "sandboxed" may be providing a false sense of security..

The correct answer here is to run new coins in a VM (virtual machine) instead that is completely isolated from your PC.  VirtualBox is free, if you have nothing better.

Actually you can specify to deny reading of files/folders in sandboxie. Settings/Resource Access/File Access/Blocked Access

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?ResourceAccessSettings#file

[aa]

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[MrWizard]

You are running the wallet in the VM.

Got it!  Thanks.

Edit: p.s.  The VM could/should be linux.  Linux uses less RAM than a Windows install and easier to build the *coind.exe
Edit2:  I love Mint version of Linux, but my question is; is there a very lightweight distro of Linux to install/build/run coin wallets?

The majority if distros are based on Debian.

Make sure you set the networking (for example, with VirtualBox) to bridge mode, otherwise you won't get a properly accessible IP for mining.

I have been using VMware for many years, and I am very happy with it.  Actually had up to 10 VMs running at one time on one machine for some crazy thing I was doing.  What I want is to allocate as little RAM as possible to the VM as I will very likely run several different wallets at one time.  (not 10  )

That is why I ask for opinions on the lightest weight Linux distro suitable for running wallets.

[aa]

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[nocoin]

That is why I ask for opinions on the lightest weight Linux distro suitable for running wallets.

Debian GNU/Linux. X-server + Openbox window manager = 20 Mb RAM.