Imagine an operating system without much security. Installing any new program would be risky business—it could replace your system files, discover passwords, even delete everything. Sounds like a nightmare? Well, that's what a sandbox can prevent.

Even when your device and operating system have reinforced security, you're not really safe. Malware detection, antivirus software, antispam, endpoint security solutions and the like are all necessary means of cyber protection, but still won't be enough for the sophisticated malware and obfuscation techniques employed by today's malicious actors.

The usual protection techniques and technologies work by identifying known indicators of compromise (IOC), meaning zero day threats and new attacks that easily evade security defenses can be missed. Incorporating sandboxing into your security tooling will provide you with an additional layer of security, allowing you to detect previously unknown threats and advanced persistent threats in a safe environment.

What happens in the sandbox, stays in the sandbox

A sandbox is a preventative analysis technology used for security deception. As an isolated environment on a network, it provides a safe testing area for running programs and executing code separately from the system, with no risk of infecting the system. When running without a sandbox, an application can require access to many of your system's critical resources.

But with a sandbox environment that mimics the operating system of the user, the application will only be able to access resources within the sandbox, with permissions to only those it needs. This way, any suspicious code or program can be kept in an isolated area, ensuring safe execution with no disruptions to the system.

Sandboxing is valuable for both software development and cybersecurity. When it comes to software development, sandbox environments are used to create secure applications, allowing developers to test new code in various environments and noncompatible programs running simultaneously.

For security, sandboxes are used as an addition to firewall solutions by protecting the OS while launching applications and working with sensitive data. Sandboxing can also be used to safely analyze malware and help prepare for future attacks. It's often employed by blue teams to safely test malware against multiple OSs, analyze it and even determine if existing antimalware solutions have properly flagged the malicious code or file. For more on the subject, we recommend you read our Blue Team Toolkit post, in which we talk about the best open source sandbox tools available.

Everyday users also benefit from sandboxes when browsing the web. Web browsers essentially run the web pages you visit in a sandbox as they are constricted to running in the browser only, with no access to your local files, webcam, etc.

Mobile apps are also run in a sandbox—they have to ask for your permission if they want to access any other resources, including your media library, camera and location.

As there are different uses and needs for sandboxing, there are multiple versions and approaches to consider:

**Virtual machines**, VMs, as their name implies, create virtualized hardware devices that emulate the entire operating system, and don't have access to anywhere outside of it. This means you can install software and run code as if you were on your regular device and OS. Well known VMs include VMware, Java VM, VirtualBox and Xen Project.

**Sandboxing programs**, A good example of a sandboxing program is the popular Sandboxie, a sandbox for Windows. It creates an isolated operating environment and applications can be run in it without accessing or modifying the local system, allowing for controlled testing of programs and applications.

**Limiting permissions**, Having the system assign levels of access for users and programs according to determined rules, such as SELinux rules and Posix capabilities, means you can have control o...