Secure Computer Science

[kennysarmy]

That's the problem. We hide the C: drive and have even created a custom executable to hide the scripted shortcut location and parameters but there's always an old wind9x/3.1 based program they need to run which lets them freely browse the C: drive and find out where it's installed. And if they google Virtualbox with a little bit of investigation they can (and already have) guess where it points to.

 

It's worrying as they've set these applications as being part of the curriculum but nobody appears to have given any thought to the security implications of running development/coding apps on school networks. Most of the other local schools I've spoken to have just installed Python/EasyPHP/Vistual Studio/etc directly onto the computers and given pupils access to run them.

 

I don't think the EXE can run if you set this:

 

From C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox : VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/Customizations noSelector

 

We run VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/Customizations noSelector,noMenuBar,noStatusBar to also remove the Menu and Status Bars.

[flyinghaggis]

I don't think the EXE can run if you set this:

 

From C:\Program Files\Oracle\VirtualBox : VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/Customizations noSelector

 

We run VBoxManage setextradata global GUI/Customizations noSelector,noMenuBar,noStatusBar to also remove the Menu and Status Bars.

 

That looks like it would do the trick when it comes to securing the app itself. I'll give that a try.

 

Cheers!

 

Update: Just tried this and it definitely prevents the user running the app directly themselves so that's much more secure. I'd incorrectly assumed these were just command switches but it turns out they do actually restrict the app on a per user basis (presumably it must add a registry edit to the logged on user acccount to prevent them launching it?). I suspect there might be ways around this restriction by running the vboxmanage shortcut with some custom switches but at least they can't simply run the app directly.

Edited September 29, 2016 by flyinghaggis