Virtualized Firefox
Posted by on April 20, 2008
At those times when I get paranoid about security I get especially nervous about my web browser. How can I not be, considering all the content of unknown origin it’s exposed to? Also, as the web becomes more interactive the area vulnerable for exploits grows exponentially.
While it’s some comfort to have Firefox run as a non-administrative user it would still feel a lot better if that user didn’t happen to be my regular user, with access to all my files, settings, keys, etc. That is why I now run my Firefox completely virtualized.
The setup I’ve initially chosen is based on having VirtualBox power a virtual Debian stable. Inside that virtual machine Firefox (IceWeasel) is launched from an unprivileged X-environment. Openbox seemed like a suitable window manager.
Of course, there are still the risk of a web-session being used to attack another, the issue of keeping my certificates safe, the potential of VirtualBox being exploitable, etc. Stil, keeping your computer safe is something of a journey and this virtualized solution is hopefully a step in the right direction.
