Timeline for What is the safest way to deal with loads of incoming PDF files, some of which could potentially be malicious?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
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| Aug 13, 2020 at 2:46 | comment | added | val - disappointed in SE | While I really adore this answer, it's still worth noting that many VM managers support snapshots (along with disabling network and other essential features), essentially nullifying threat of "delete all files" attacks. If your's doesn't, live Linux images don't use hard drive anyways. | |
| Mar 20, 2017 at 13:07 | history | edited | user139336 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 20, 2017 at 12:07 | comment | added | user139336 | @Tgr I added that to the answer as a footnote. | |
| Feb 20, 2017 at 12:06 | history | edited | user139336 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 17, 2017 at 20:51 | comment | added | user139336 |
@Tgr Yeah, and as I said one can set the dispvm_netvm property so that the DisposableVM be offline with no network. This should be better than with Tor.
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| Feb 17, 2017 at 20:04 | comment | added | Tgr | E.g. for an investigative journalist collecting information in an authoritarian regime, that regime being able to track down their physical location by mailing them a specially crafted PDF is a pretty essential security vulnerability. I guess Tor protects you against that though. | |
| Feb 17, 2017 at 19:07 | comment | added | user139336 | @Tgr But again this is Security StackExchange not Qubes StackExchange so I wanted to make my answer more focused on the security side :) | |
| Feb 17, 2017 at 19:06 | comment | added | user139336 |
@Tgr I confirm. "By default, if a DisposableVM is created (by Open in DispVM or Run in DispVM) from within a VM that is not connected to the Tor gateway, the new DisposableVM may route its traffic over clearnet. This is because DisposableVMs inherit their NetVMs from the calling VM (or the calling VM's dispvm_netvm setting if different). The dispvm_netvm setting can be configured per VM by: dom0 → Qubes VM Manager → VM Settings → Advanced → NetVM for DispVM." This shouldn't be an issue by default if one configured their email VM on whonix-ws which routes all traffic through Tor.
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| Feb 17, 2017 at 4:52 | comment | added | Tgr | Note that by default VMs can still access the internet; one of the uses of malicious PDFs is to expose the IP address of the reader. | |
| Feb 15, 2017 at 22:01 | history | edited | user139336 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| S Feb 15, 2017 at 21:18 | history | suggested | Delioth | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 15, 2017 at 20:10 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Feb 15, 2017 at 21:18 | |||||
| Feb 15, 2017 at 10:28 | history | edited | user139336 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 14, 2017 at 17:37 | vote | accept | Tom the journalist | ||
| Feb 14, 2017 at 14:55 | history | edited | user139336 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 14, 2017 at 14:38 | history | edited | user139336 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| Feb 14, 2017 at 13:34 | review | First posts | |||
| Feb 14, 2017 at 14:17 | |||||
| Feb 14, 2017 at 13:31 | history | answered | user139336 | CC BY-SA 3.0 |