Virtualization.

[creephdGT]

Let´s say i have a virtual OS... would i be able to test potentally hardware-harming data on the virtulized OS without hurting my main PC? 

[Windows7ge]

5 minutes ago, creephdGT said:

Let´s say i have a virtual OS... would i be able to test potentally hardware-harming data on the virtulized OS without hurting my main PC? 

Hardware harming or OS harming? If you create a fully virtualized instance then something that harms hardware would theoretically be stopped as the "hardware" would be simulated for the VM.

 

If you mean OS then yes. It's actually advised if you HAVE to download no so trustworthy things from not so trustworthy sites that you do it in a VM. So long as you don't give it a path out to your local machine light if you bridged the network adapter to your local network.

[TheGlenlivet]

9 minutes ago, creephdGT said:

Let´s say i have a virtual OS... would i be able to test potentally hardware-harming data on the virtulized OS without hurting my main PC? 

Yes.  But to be extra safe I'd put the OS's virtual drive on a separate physical disk.  A thumb drive would work if you can handle some slower speed.

[Sauron]

Depends on how you're virtualizing it and what sort of "hardware-harming" data you're talking about... I can't really think of any data that might harm your hardware to be honest.

[Sfekke]

6 minutes ago, Sauron said:

Depends on how you're virtualizing it and what sort of "hardware-harming" data you're talking about... I can't really think of any data that might harm your hardware to be honest.

Maybe something that overwrites/modifies the BIOS?

Not sure if there is still software out there that does that, but I've had it happen to me once years back.

 

Can it hurt your host OS?

I've been using VM's to test software I don't trust for 4+ years now, if you set it up correctly making sure there is no path that a potentially malicious program can follow you'll be fine.

Obviously don't login on email/Steam/etc in that VM; keep it as close to clean as possible. Making a snapshot right after all updates completed and the install is done makes this process of reinstalling the VM everytime you borked it up a lot easier.

[creephdGT]

3 hours ago, creephdGT said:

Let´s say i have a virtual OS... would i be able to test potentally hardware-harming data on the virtulized OS without hurting my main PC? 

*hardware-harming* as in virus to slow the PC down and how do i set it up properly?

[Sauron]

3 hours ago, Sfekke said:

Maybe something that overwrites/modifies the BIOS?

That's pretty hard to do with a malware unless there's a massive vulnerability in the operating system AND the malware knows exactly what motherboard you have. I haven't heard of anything like that recently. Regardless, it shouldn't get through a "classic" vm; it might be able to do something if you're using KVM or some other kernel based virtualization, but again, that would require a pretty big flaw in the hypervisor.

3 hours ago, Sfekke said:

Can it hurt your host OS?

It depends, wanacry for example could spread on your network even if you ran it in a vm. I would recommend blocking your vm's network connection if you use it as a sandbox for iffy executables...

[Sfekke]

25 minutes ago, Sauron said:

I haven't heard of anything like that recently.

What I thought, did some googling as well since it peaked my curiosity and I want to keep my Maximus VII Hero around for a few more years; recently there doesn't seem to be widespread flaws like that. Whew

27 minutes ago, Sauron said:

It depends, wanacry for example could spread on your network even if you ran it in a vm. I would recommend blocking your vm's network connection if you use it as a sandbox for iffy executables...

Never a bad idea, good call.