Respondus Lockdown Browser

[Otwweepp]

Hey guys, I'm new here. Just wanna ask if respondus lockdown browser is legit or not? 

[Nathanpete]

4 minutes ago, Otwweepp said:

Hey guys, I'm new here. Just wanna ask if respondus lockdown browser is legit or not? 

It is a piece of shit browser that school are employing to do online tests in lockdown. Protest it as much as you can, it is pratically a virus. Ever had a program that literally disables the ability to shut down the computer without pulling the power? No? Well that is one of the many thing that Respondus does. 

[kelvinhall05]

Is it legit? Technically, yes. But is it a massive invasion of privacy, huge security risk, and extremely unethical for students to be forced to use it? Absolutely.

 

 

As said above, protest it as much as possible.

[MartinKweh]

I used it on my old laptop. It practically prevented me from shutting down and had to do some recovery stuff. After my school ended last year, i uninstalled and formatted my pc. 

[Helpful Tech Witch]

If you have to use it, SET UP A WINDOWS VM! That would meant that once yo install it, you dont have to deal with a security/privacy risk. 

Encrypt all personal data you cant let be seen (like if you have  a password text file)

Sue school /s

[Nathanpete]

If you are being required to use it on your personal desktop, buy a used HDD of a small capacity, like a really old drive of less than 400 GB. Install windows on it (unlicensed), and install as little as possible else on it just to keep it running at its fastest speeds. Install Respondus, and make sure to have everything unplugged except for keyboard, mouse, and your monitor. I would also suggest a VPN, but it wouldn't suprise me if Respondus blocks VPN connections. 

[Nathanpete]

Just now, HelpfulTechWizard said:

If you have to use it, SET UP A WINDOWS VM! That would meant that once yo install it, you dont have to deal with a security/privacy risk. 

Encrypt all personal data you cant let be seen (like if you have  a password text file)

Sue school /s

Respondus has a ton of anti-VM code in it. And it has been gaining more ever since I saw SOG's video on it. But it could have also been because he was virtualizing Windows inside of Linux. Maybe you would have better luck virtualizing another instance of windows inside windows. 

[pythonmegapixel]

9 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

It is a piece of shit browser that school are employing to do online tests in lockdown. Protest it as much as you can, it is pratically a virus. Ever had a program that literally disables the ability to shut down the computer without pulling the power? No? Well that is one of the many thing that Respondus does. 

6 minutes ago, kelvinhall05 said:

Is it legit? Technically, yes. But is it a massive invasion of privacy, huge security risk, and extremely unethical for students to be forced to use it? Absolutely.

As said above, protest it as much as possible.

Incidentally, I notice that they market it as allowing students to take the test on "their favourite device". OK, let's have a look at your compatibility list.... oh.

 

Windows 10 and macOS, and iPads if you're lucky. 

So let's just casually ignore the fact that a lot of people have Android tablets or Chromebooks, and some people have systems running Linux or even old versions of Windows. Everyone's favourite device is a recent Windows machine, a Mac, or an iPad now!!!

 

And, as said below, don't bother try running it in Wine or VMware or anything like that!

 

1 minute ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

If you have to use it, SET UP A WINDOWS VM! That would meant that once yo install it, you dont have to deal with a security/privacy risk. 

Encrypt all personal data you cant let be seen (like if you have  a password text file)

According to their support pages it seems to have VM/emulation detection as well. Ridiculous.

 

2 minutes ago, Nathanpete said:

Respondus has a ton of anti-VM code in it. 

How exactly does it work? Some VM detection works by just reading device names from the registry and seeing if they contain the name of a virtualisation program; that's very easy to circumvent.

 

I should add at this point that I don't condone cheating on exams; I just find the technicalities of this kind of thing very interesting, and also agree that this sort of software is a horrible privacy violation.

[kelvinhall05]

1 minute ago, pythonmegapixel said:

Some VM detection works by just reading device names from the registry and seeing if they contain the name of a virtualisation program; that's very easy to circumvent.

I can almost guarantee it is something like this that is easy to change; the software just looks for any default device/hardware names that are automatically assigned by your VM software.

[Nathanpete]

1 minute ago, pythonmegapixel said:

According to their support pages it seems to have VM/emulation detection as well. Ridiculous.

 

How exactly does it work? Some VM detection works by just reading device names from the registry and seeing if they contain the name of a virtualisation program; that's very easy to circumvent.

 

I should add at this point that I don't condone cheating on exams; I just find the technicalities of this kind of thing very interesting, and also agree that this sort of software is a horrible privacy violation.

I don't exactly remember, but when Mutahar was attempting to run it inside a virtualized W10 under Arch Linux, I don't think he was successful, and he is pretty good in terms of virtualization knowledge. By far not the best, but better than I ever expect to be. Even if he was, he is popular enough that Respondus prob took notice and updated their anti-VM code to be more sensitive. 

 

At this point I would argue that it would take less time to format and installs windows to a 2010 laptop HDD and install Lockdown then it would be to successfully virtualize the Lockdown browser. Unless you are already well versed in virtualization, in which case it is a coin toss if you would beat me in this race or not. 

[Rolling2405]

9 minutes ago, HelpfulTechWizard said:

If you have to use it, SET UP A WINDOWS VM!

I thought you can't because the software knows you're using a VM and blocks it and alerts your school that you are using a VM.

 

At least according to this video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgZlQbDY6QA 

 

None of my professors so far have used it on exams but I know my school has the software. I have had to use Proctorio before which is a Chrome extension. Maybe that could be run in a VM? I don't know I never tried it.

[pythonmegapixel]

Digging through various web pages on Respondus's website seems to suggest various software that it will refuse to coexist with, even if not running.

This suggests that it's actually looking through the filing system.

(I had previously assumed it was similar to, for example, in-game anticheat, and checked what was in RAM but not on disk).

 

Another massive privacy violation.

 

If you have a desktop, I definitely agree with getting a cheap extra disk and running it on there (obviously without leaving your other drives plugged in!)

 

Alternatively does Windows do a live ISO like most Linux distributions do? If so, and replacing your drive temporarily isn't practical, use that. (I would suggest using one of the aforementioned Linux ISOs, but... y'know....)

[Helpful Tech Witch]

31 minutes ago, pythonmegapixel said:

Alternatively does Windows do a live ISO like most Linux distributions do? If so, and replacing your drive temporarily isn't practical, use that

technically you can, but it would be painful.

also you would need loke a 64gb usb.

 

 

 

MY school uses go garudian, which is active at all times on any pc you sync your account to. 

luckily, I have a Chromebook of my own that I use at home