BitBox - a separated Linux VM with a Firefox/Chrome installation

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

 

The virtual surf environment "Browser in the Box" has initially been developed by Sirrix on behalf of the German Federal Office for Information Security for use by all federal authorities. Now the solution is open for anyone [...] On the basis of a “Browser-in-the-Box” concept a virtual machine is provided with a reduced operating system and a web browser encapsulated therein. Malware cannot thus penetrate the host operating system; a potential damage in the separated virtual machine will vanish with each start of the browser by returning to a certified starting point. All of that is fully transparent to the user.

 

In contrast to simple sandboxing methods provided by standard browsers "Browser in the Box" isolates all activities of the browser completely from the host operating system. Merely a single shared folder within the host is made accessible for a separate user account. This folder stores all persistent configuration data like favorites of the browser. Equally all downloaded files are initially stored in this folder and are only forwarded into the normal user accessible download folder after a malware scan.

Besides this extensive protection of the host system against any attacks from the Internet, "Browser in the Box" reliably prevents any uploads of files into the Internet.

 

Basically BitBox (Browser in the Box) is a VirtualBox VM with a reduced Debian Linux installation in which a Firefox or Chrome browser is started directly after it's launch. The developer company Sirrix AG is based in Saarbrücken, Germany, and didn't intend to provide maximum anonymity. Instead, they focused on maximum security. You can easily install your favorite anonymity addons and browse (more or less) secure and (more or less) anonymous.

 

BitBox on sirrix.com

BitBox download from sirrix.com

Video about BitBox by german YouTuber SemperVideo

[PortlyNinja 17]

How have you found it?I like the sound of it but how different is it from the comodo internet security virtual os.Is it better?I am going to try it myself but am interested what you think.Thanks for letting us know about it

[PortlyNinja 17]

I tried it but couldn't get it to install.It got stuck installing and just never finished.Also after trying to run it i couldn't connect to the internet.In its defense though it did warn that it hadn't been tested much on win 8.1.I'm not sure what it changed during install but i couldn't connect with the vpn even after reinstalling air and checking network connections.Had to restore.But I'll try it again  in a windows 7 VM to see what its like. 

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

Federal offices in Germany are very hesitant when it comes to implementing new technology. Did you know they still use XP? And did you know they'd pay more just to make Microsoft release security updates for XP? There's one thing you know, though; that's why they didn't test it with Win8 yet.

 

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