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Virtual machines for clean environments & untrusted executables / wallets

W

wand3r3r

Limp Gawd
Joined
Dec 17, 2011
Messages
422
How are you guys utilizing VMs and similar concepts to try contain the impact of running the various wallets?

It would seem ideal to have a clean VM and run the wallet, take a backup out, and then just delete the VM. Later you just fire up a clean copy, install wallet, copy in backup and do whatever you want. There is certainly risks involved with VM's and I believe sharing a disk was one but I'm sure there are others.

I have VMWare player and can't get the Windows VMware tools installed, I suspect due to having them installed for linux.
 
I figured it's only a matter of time before a major cryptocoin site is compromised and starts hosting malware. So I visit all crypto-related sites from within a virtual machine (using virtual box, or hyper-v on my other machine). If the worst happens, I just revert to snapshot.

I've only run the Dogecoin, Bitcoin, and Litecoin wallets directly on my computer. Those seemed trustworthy. And someone please correct me if I'm wrong, but there's little to no risk from running those (nobody is going to somehow/bizarrely gain entry to my PC through them).

If I had it to do over again, though, I wouldn't even have run those wallets. Most pools will pay out to a Cryptsy account which is where I do all my exchanging. And then when it's all in BTC, it's off to coinbase. There's really no place in there for a locally hosted wallet, much as I liked the idea of local ones at the outset.

I suppose the only one I'd probably still run is the bitcoin wallet so that I can hold my "closest to cash" cryptocoins myself rather than entrust them to the security of a 3rd party website.

--H
 
I sometimes spin up a cheap VPS over on Digital Ocean for coins I don't trust. Usually though I try to avoid installing the wallet at all and just transfer straight to exchanges from mining pools, etc.

If you run VMs on your main machine make sure they are truly isolated (i.e no clipboard sharing).
 
I tend to avoid wallets but for those that come back clean from virustotal I will install them on the actual mining rig (and backup the wallet.dat)

Of course, the usual antivirus + MBAM combo on each machine as well. VMs are probably better but I keep crypto off of my main desktop and handle all crypto and management of my mining rigs through a separate PC to keep it "secure".
 
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