Sandbox Security Clients Versus Web Threats

"Many sandbox security vendors claim that their products stop all known and unknown attacks. Even assuming the ability to curtail all known attacks could be proven, it's simply impossible to believe that any piece of software could halt all unknown attacks. Of course, that doesn't prevent the vendors from making empty promises or the malware authors from proving them wrong." writes Roger A. Grimes in his article in PCWorld.

In Grimes' testing of five sandbox security clients -- Authentium's SafeCentral, Check Point's ZoneAlarm ForceField, Prevx, Sandboxie, and SoftSphere Technologies' DefenseWall HIPS -- he exposed all the products to dozens of malicious attacks, both well known and not so well known. Two malware programs, in particular, stretched the various competitors to their breaking points: the Adobe Flash clipboard hijack exploit and the XP Antivirus malware program. None of the tested sandbox clients passed the first meantioned and most failed to accurately clean up from the XP Antivirus. In the end, Grimes' favourite products were Prevx and Sandboxie.

Grimes' review can be read here.