VirtualBox 5.1.22 (released 2017-04-28)

VirtualBox 5.1.22 (released 2017-04-28)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: fixed VERR_IEM_INSTR_NOT_IMPLEMENTED Guru Meditation under certain conditions (5.1 regression; mostly Mac OS X hosts; bugs #15693, #15801,#16274, #16569, #16663)
• VMM: fixed software virtualization on Solaris hosts (5.1.20 regression)
• Storage: fixed a potential hang under rare circumstances (bug #16677)
• Storage: fixed a potential crash under rare circumstances (asynchronous I/O disabled or during maintenance file operations like merging snapshots)
• Linux hosts: make the ALSA backend work again as well as loading the GL libraries on certain hosts (5.1.20 regression; bugs #16667, #16693)
• Linux Additions: fixed mount.vboxsf symlink problem (5.1.20 regression; bug #16670)

VirtualBox 5.1.20 (released 2017-04-18)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• GUI: don't check if the Extension Pack is up-to-date if the user is about to install a new Extension Pack (bug #16317)
• GUI: fixed a possible crash when switching a multi-monitor VM into full-screen or seamless mode
• GUI: fixed non-literal shortcuts if the keyboard is not captured (5.1.10 regression; Windows hosts only)
• GUI: several mini-toolbar fixes in full-screen / seamless mode (X11 hosts only)
• GUI: don't crash on restoring defaults in the appliance import dialog
• Windows Additions: another fix for automatic logins for Windows Vista and newer (bug #15904)
• ICH9: fix for Windows guests with a huge amount (>64G) of guest memory
• BIOS: fixed El Torito hard disk emulation geometry calculation (thanks Dwight Engen)

VirtualBox 5.1.18 (released 2017-03-15)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• Shared Folders: fixed case insensitive filename access (5.1.16 regression; Windows guests only; bug #16549)
• Shared Folders: fixed access to long pathes (5.1.16 regression; Windows guests only; bugs #14651, #16564)
• API: fixed snapshot handling of medium attachments and PCI device attachments (bug #16545)
• API: make 32-bit Windows guests in raw mode boot again if the ICH9 chipset is used (5.1.16 regression)
• VBoxBugReport: fixed VM log collection issue
• Linux hosts: fixed autostart service script (bug #14955)
• Windows Additions: fixed automatic logins for Windows Vista and newer (5.1.4 regression; bug #15904)

VirtualBox 5.1.16 (released 2017-03-08)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: don't access the MSR_IA32_SMM_MONITOR_CTL MSR if dual-monitor treatment is not available (KVM workaround, bug #14965)
• VMM: another fix for handling certain MSRs on ancient CPUs without VT-x support for MSR bitmaps
• VMM: fixed VERR_SSM_LOAD_CPUID_MISMATCH errors when restoring a saved state with SMP guests on hosts without the CPUID/HTT bit set (bug #16428)
• VMM: fixed a bug in call gate emulation
• VMM: FWAIT instruction fix
• VMM: fixed a sporadic guest hang under certain conditions
• GUI: hide the mini-toolbar from the taskbar and the pager on certain X11 hosts
• GUI: better error handling on the global settings / network / host-only / DHCP server settings
• GUI: fixes for full-screen with multiple screens
• Host-only Network: fixed host-only adapter creation issue preventing VirtualBox installation on Windows 10 hosts (bug #16379)
• NAT network: fixed two potential crashes in the DHCP server
• ICH9: fixed incorrect initialization of the primary bus for PCI bridges (5.1.14 regression)
• Storage: LsiLogic fix for Windows 10
• USB: fixed not being able to attach certain USB devices having invalid characters in the device strings (5.0.18 regression; bug #15956)
• USB: several fixes for the USB/IP support (bug #16462)
• VBoxSVC: fixed another crash during shutdown under rare circumstances
• VBoxSVC: fixed a stack overflow on (Windows debug builds only; bug #16409)
• OVF: when importing an appliance handle more than 10 network adapters if the OVA was created by VirtualBox (bug #16401)
• OVF: fixes for exporting and importing appliances with many disks (bug #16402)
• VBoxManage: fixed regression with modifyhd --resize (bug #16311)
• rdesktop-vrdp: source code tarball fixes
• Linux Installers: do not rebuild kernel modules unnecessarily (bug #16408)
• Linux hosts: added an action for opening the VM manager window to the .desktop file
• Linux hosts / guests: Linux 4.11 compile fixes (bug #16506)
• Linux Additions: added vboxsf FS modules alias (bug #16404)
• Linux Additions: fix for the shared folders kernel module to compile on Linux 4.10
• Linux Additions: properly install the Linux kernel module override rule on distributions without /etc/depmod.d
• Windows Additions: fixed a crash with recent Windows 10 builds if 3D is disabled (bug #15973)

Skipped a couple of versions

- wong chee tat :)

VirtualBox 5.1.14 (released 2017-01-17)

VirtualBox 5.1.14 (released 2017-01-17)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: fixed emulation of certain instructions for 64-bit guests on 32-bit hosts
• VMM: properly handle certain MSRs for 64-bit guests on ancient CPUs without VT-x support for MSR bitmaps (bug #13886)
• GUI: fixed a crash with multimonitor setups under certain conditions
• GUI: allow cloning of snapshots when the VM is running
• NVMe: fixed compatibility with the Storage Performance Development Kit (SPDK, bug #16368)
• VBoxSVC: fixed a crash under rare circumstances
• VBoxManage: added a sanity check to modifymedium --resize to prevent users from resizing their hard disk from 1GB to 1PB (bug #16311)
• Windows hosts: another fix for recent Windows 10 hosts
• Linux hosts: Linux 4.10 fixes
• Linux Additions: fixed protocol error during certain operations on shared folders (bug #8463)

Maybe I should download and play with it.


- wong chee tat :)

VirtualBox 5.1.12 (released 2016-12-20)

VirtualBox 5.1.12 (released 2016-12-20)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: fixed VERR_IEM_ASPECT_NOT_IMPLEMENTED Guru Meditations with certain Linux guests if KVM paravirtualization is enabled (5.1 regression; bugs #15613and #16251)
• VMM: fixed VERR_VMX_UNABLE_TO_START_VM Guru Meditations under rare conditions
• GUI: prevent a crash under certain conditions if the VM is terminated very early
• GUI: fixed certain keyboard capture issues (5.1.10 regression; Mac OS X hosts only; bug #16150)
• GUI: fixed dragging guest windows in seamless mode with the keyboard captured (X11 hosts only; bug #15837)
• GUI: fixed a problem where the new version detected dialog was covered by the appliance import dialog (Mac OS X hosts only; bug #16238)
• Storage: fixed NVMe reset processing when doing rmmod nvme; modprobe nvme in a Linux guest (bug #16080)
• Storage: fixed creating a snapshot when the VM is running and an NVMe controller is present
• Storage: fixed a problem with the LsiLogic SCSI controller where requests could be lost with SMP guests
• E1000: fixed "cable disconnected" issue (Mac OS X guests only; 5.1.10 regression; bug #16260)
• E1000: fixed "TX unit hang" issue (Linux guests only; 5.1.10 regression; bug #16221)
• Parallel ports: fixed port enumeration on Windows host (bugs #15872 and #16127)
• API: don't crash when sanitizing certain VM names (bug #16299)
• Linux hosts: automatically disable asynchronous I/O on Linux 2.6.18 kernels as high I/O load may trigger kernel oopses on these kernels if this feature is enabled
• Linux hosts / guests: Linux 2.6.28 compile fix (bug #16267)
• Linux hosts: compile Linux 4.9 compile fix (bug #16286)
• Linux Additions: warn the user about a known bug with older Linux guests (e.g. Debian 7) requiring manual work to get 3D working (bug #15319)
• Linux Additions: fix the graphics driver build with Linux 4.10 and later (bug #16298)
• Windows Additions: fixed a crash in the WDDM driver under certain conditions

VirtualBox 5.1.10 (released 2016-11-21)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• GUI: the USB filter settings dialog should allow to specify the USB revision in hexadecimal format (bug #15400)
• GUI: fixed crash on certain hosts when pressing certain key combinations (Windows hosts only; bug #15719)
• GUI: fixed issue with updating the available-geometry on host-screen work-area resize
• GUI: don't crash / hang on certain environments if accessibility support is enabled
• GUI: fixed various issues in Unscaled HiDPI Output mode (bug #15707)
• GUI: extend the VM Input menu with Print Screen-related actions
• GUI: improved handling of inserting the Guest Additions ISO image by trying all available optical drives rather than only the first one and by not asking the user if he wants to force unmounting (which doesn't work in most cases anyway)
• API: default to RTC using UTC for Solaris 11 guests
• Settings: be less restrictive when reading a VM configuration containing a host-only adapter without an interface name
• Storage: fixed resizing VDI images resulting in an unbootable image under certain circumstances (bug #15983)
• NAT: fixed several 5.1.8 regressions on Mac OS X and Windows hosts (bug #16084)
• Audio: fixed a few 5.1.x regressions by using the audio code from 5.0.x until the audio overhaul is completed
• VBoxManage: fixed documentation of the storagectl command (bug #15971)
• Build system: another fix for building VirtualBox on systems which default to Python 3
• Windows hosts: hardening fix for Windows 10 build 14971 (bug #16202)
• Windows Additions: properly start the VirtualBox guest services even if the guest user name contains special characters (bug #15982)
• Solaris Additions: fixed preemptible mouse notification callback being executed under a spinlock for Solaris guests
• Linux hosts / guests: Linux 4.9 fixes (bugs #16155 and #16064)
• Linux Additions: fixed Linux kernel module override rule (thanks Mark Furneaux)

Good time to install!

- wong chee tat :)

VirtualBox 5.1.8 (released 2016-10-18)

VirtualBox 5.1.8 (released 2016-10-18)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• GUI: fixed keyboard shortcut handling regressions (Mac OS X hosts only; bugs #15937 and #15938)
• GUI: fixed keyboard handling regression for separate UI (Windows hosts only; bugs #15928)
• NAT: don't exceed the maximum number of "search" suffixes. Patch from bug #15948.
• NAT: fixed parsing of port-forwarding rules with a name which contains a slash (bug #16002)
• NAT Network: when the host has only loopback nameserver that cannot be mapped to the guests (e.g. dnsmasq running on 127.0.1.1), make DHCP supply NAT Network DNS proxy as nameserver.
• Bridged Network: prevent flooding syslog with packet allocation error messages (bug #15569)
• Audio: now using Audio Queues on Mac OS X hosts
• Audio: fixed recording with the PulseAudio backend (5.1 regression)
• Audio: various bugfixes
• Snapshots: fixed regression in 5.1.4 for deleting snapshots with several disks (bug #15831)
• Snapshots: crash fix and better error reporting when snapshot deletion failed
• Storage: some fixes for the NVMe emulation with Windows guests
• API: fixed initialization of SAS controllers (bug #15972)
• Build system: make it possible to build VBox on systems which default to Python 3
• Windows hosts: detect certain cases of REGDB_E_CLASSNOTREG errors and print a helpful error message
• Windows hosts: adapted to changes in Windows 10 build 14901 (bug #15944)
• Windows hosts: better support for processor groups on Windows 7 and later which is required on certain hosts with many CPUs
• Windows installer / Additions: added option to prevent creating of start menu items (bug #15922)
• Windows Additions / VGA: if the guest's power management turns a virtual screen off, blank the corresponding VM window rather than hide the window
• Windows Additions: fixed a generic bug which could lead to freezing shared folders (bug #15662)
• Linux hosts / guests: fix for kernels with CONFIG_CPUMASK_OFFSTACK set (bug #16020)
• Linux Additions: don't require all virtual consoles be in text mode. This should fix cases when the guest is booted with a graphical boot screen (bug #15683)
• Linux Additions: added depmod overrides for the vboxguest and vboxsf kernel modules to fix conflicts with modules shipped by certain Linux distributions
• X11 Additions: disable 3D on the guest if the host does not provide enough capabilities (bug #15860)

- wong chee tat :)

VirtualBox 5.1.6 (released 2016-09-12)

VirtualBox 5.1.6 (released 2016-09-12)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• GUI: fixed issue with opening '.vbox' files and it's aliases
• GUI: keyboard grabbing fixes (bugs #15771 and #15745)
• GUI: fix for passing through Ctrl + mouse-click (Mac OS X hosts only; bug #15714)
• GUI: fixed automatic deletion of extension pack files (bugs #11352 and #14742)
• USB: fixed showing unknown device instead of the manufacturer or product description under certain circumstances (5.1.0 regression; bug #15764)
• XHCI: another fix for a hanging guest under certain conditions as result of the fix for bug #15747, this time for Windows 7 guests
• Serial: fixed high CPU usage with certain USB to serial converters on Linux hosts (bug #7796)
• Storage: fixed attaching stream optimized VMDK images (bug #14764)
• Storage: reject image variants which are unsupported by the backend (bug #7227)
• Storage: fixed loading saved states created with VirtualBox 5.0.10 and older when using a SCSI controller (bug #15865)
• Storage: fixed broken NVMe emulation if the host I/O cache setting is enabled
• Storage: fixed using multiple NVMe controllers if ICH9 is used
• NVMe: fixed a crash during reset which could happen under certain circumstances
• Audio: fixed microphone input (5.1.2 regression; bugs #14386 and #15802)
• Audio: fixed crashes under certain conditions (5.1.0 regression; bug #15887 and others)
• Audio: fixed recording with the ALSA backend (5.1 regression)
• Audio: fixed stream access mode with OSS backend (5.1 regression, thanks to Jung-uk Kim)
• E1000: do also return masked bits when reading the ICR register, this fixes booting from iPXE (5.1.2 regression; bug #15846)
• BIOS: fixed 4bpp scanline calculation (bug #15787)
• API: relax the check for the version attribute in OVF/OVA appliances (bug #15856)
• Windows hosts: fixed crashes when terminating the VM selector or other VBox COM clients (bug #15726 and others)
• Linux Installer: fixed path to the documentation in .rpm packages (5.1.0 regression)
• Linux Installer: fixed the vboxdrv.sh script to prevent an SELinux complaint (bug #15816)
• Linux hosts: don't use 32-bit legacy capabilities
• Linux Additions: Linux 4.8 fix for the kernel display driver (bugs #15890 and #15896)
• Linux Additions: don't load the kernel modules provided by the Linux distribution but load the kernel modules from the official Guest Additions package instead (bug#15324)
• Linux Additions: fix dynamic resizing problems in recent Linux guests (bug #15875)
• User Manual: fixed error in the VBoxManage chapter for the getextradata enumerate example (bug #15862)

Good time to download and install!

- wong chee tat :)

VirtualBox 5.1.4 (released 2016-08-16)

VirtualBox 5.1.4 (released 2016-08-16)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• GUI: show actual VM uptime in the session information window
• Audio: re-enabled speakers for Mac OS X guests (5.1.0 regression; bug #15611)
• Audio: fixed crashes under certain conditions
• USB: fixed a hang under certain conditions
• USB: fixed a hanging guest under certain conditions (bug #15747)
• PIIX4: implemented dummy SMBus controller to prevent annoying Linux kernel warnings about uninitialized SMBus base address (bug #9517)
• NVMe: several fixes to improve stability, fixed a crash while saving a VM state
• VMDK: Fixed an issue creating fixed size images with certain sizes and the Split2G option enabled (bug #15748)
• VHDX: fixed cloning images with VBoxManage clonehd (bug #14288)
• Storage: Fixed broken bandwidth limitation when the limit is very low (bug #14982)
• EFI: fixed sending debug messages in the EFI firmware if a serial port is enabled (bug #12161)
• OVF: when importing appliances, make sure that the version of the embedded VirtualBox-specific settings is processed, to get the default settings handling right
• VBoxManage: Don't try to set the medium type if there is no change (bug #13850)
• Linux installer: fixed some scripting issues (bugs #15701 and #15702)
• Linux installer: fixed a path issue on certain Linux distributions (bug #15717)
• Windows hosts: fixed corrupted mouse pointers with some Linux and Solaris guests (bug #15665)
• Linux Additions: made the video driver work on 32-bit guests with large video memory sizes (bug #15621)
• Linux Additions: made the video driver work on kernel 4.7 and later (bug #15769)
• Linux Additions: converted a failure message to an informational one when drivers could not be stopped during upgrade (bug #15692)
• Linux Additions: made the video driver work around an X server bug which cause screen refresh to stop (bug #15511)
• Windows Additions: auto-resizing fixes for Windows 10 guests (bug #15257)
• Windows Additions: fixed VBoxTray problems with Windows 2000 (bug #15661)

- wong chee tat :)

clamav cvd download

Links to download cvd:

http://database.clamav.net/main.cvd

http://database.clamav.net/daily.cvd

The default database location is: "C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\.clamwin\db"

- wong chee tat :)

VirtualBox 5.1.2 (released 2016-07-21)

VirtualBox 5.1.2 (released 2016-07-21)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: several fixes
• GUI: fixed screenshot if the VM is started in separate mode
• GUI: fixed issue with double-click/opening registered file types (.vbox and .vbox-extpack) on Mac OS X (bug #15648)
• GUI: fixed a bug which made it impossible close some error/warning messages using the close button
• GUI: weakened the control over the VM window behavior allowing to resize it across multiple screens and to use in Snap Assist techniques
• GUI: jump to the second tab of the session information window (5.1.0 regression)
• GUI: fix for Alt-Tab
• Storage: fixed creating fixed size VHD images (bug #15601)
• Storage: fixed a hang during power off if the VM was suspended before and a NVMe controller is configured
• USB: fixed a crash under certain conditions
• Audio: make AC'97 volume control work again (5.1.0 regression; bug #15598)
• Audio: fixed rare VM hangs when using AC'97 emulation
• Audio: SB16 fixes
• EFI: fixed access to devices attached to SATA port 2 and higher (bug #15607)
• OVA: fix for checking certain signatures
• OVA: fixed MAC address generation for appliances created by VirtualBox (5.1.0 regression; bug #15623)
• API: fixed audio settings handling for older config files (bug #15626)
• API: fixed truncation of USB product/vendor IDs on Linux hosts (5.1.0 regression; bug #15644)
• API: fixed VRDP with authentication (bug #15653)
• API: don't crash if there is no graphics controller configured (bug #15628)
• Linux hosts: fixed EL5 builds (bug #15634)
• non-Windows hosts: fixed a crash during shutdown under rare circumstances (bug #15568)
• Linux Additions: fixed SELinux issue which prevented certain Linux guests to work in 3D mode (bug #15574)
• User Manual: updates

VirtualBox 5.1 (released 2016-07-12)

This is a major update. The following major new features were added:

• VMM: new APIC and I/O APIC implementations that result in significantly improved performance in certain situations (for example with networking, bug #15295)
• VMM: added support for Hyper-V paravirtualized debugging of Windows guests
• VMM: emulate even more MMIO and shadow pagetable exits without going back to user mode
• GUI: overall migration to Qt5 (bug #11775)
• GUI: passive API event listener improving the VM GUI performance and response time
• Audio: added HDA (High Definition Audio) support for newer Linux guests
• Audio: added on-demand timers which should improve the overall performance and reduce the CPU consumption
• Audio: more fine-grained volume control for the AC'97 emulation, which now also takes the master volume control into account
• better support for Python 3

In addition, the following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: activate the x2APIC by default for Linux guests
• VMM: many more fixes
• GUI: the Detach UI action is now a part of the VM Machine menu
• GUI: reworked session information window
• GUI: the new VM wizard now allows to choose the VM location for the VM which is being created
• GUI: fixed location of touch events in unscaled HiDPI mode (bugs #14366, #14367)
• GUI: various bugfixes and internal cleanup
• Storage: use fallocate() or similar if present to speed up creating fixed-sized disk images (bug #5967)
• Storage: implemented NVMHCI-compatible storage controller
• Audio: various bugfixes and infrastructure improvements
• E1000: implemented interrupt throttling for performance improvements
• EFI: many improvements, for example allow to boot from USB
• OVF: improved handling of signed manifests
• API: Windows XP guests and Windows 2003 server guests now default to the E1000 T Server network card
• VBoxSVC: fixed several memory leaks when handling .dmg images
• Installers: ship VBoxBugReport
• Windows hosts: reworked COM proxy (e.g. bug #8298)
• Linux installers: no longer rely on DKMS for module rebuilding
• Linux Additions: fix a problem when updating the initramfs after the guest modules are compiled (bug #15579)
• Linux Additions: try to fix a problem where the OpenGL libraries where loaded by the X server when we only support X clients (bug #15574)

- wong chee tat :)

VirtualBox 5.0.26 (released 2016-07-18)

VirtualBox 5.0.26 (released 2016-07-18)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: fixed a bug in the task switching code (ticket #15571)
• GUI: allow to overwrite an existing file when saving a log file (bug #8034)
• GUI: fixed screenshot if the VM is started in separate mode
• Audio: improved recording from USB headsets and other sources which might need conversion of captured data
• Audio: fixed regression of not having any audio available on Solaris hosts
• VGA: fixed an occasional hang when running Windows guests with 3D enabled
• Storage: fixed a possible endless reconnect loop for the iSCSI backend if connecting to the target succeeds but further I/O requests cause a disconnect
• Storage: fixed a bug when resizing certain VDI images which resulted in using the whole disk on the host (bug #15582)
• EFI: fixed access to devices attached to SATA port 2 and higher (bug #15607)
• API: fixed video recording with VBoxHeadless (bug #15443)
• API: don't crash if there is no graphics controller configured (bug #15628)
• VBoxSVC: fixed several memory leaks when handling .dmg images
• Solaris hosts: fixed a crash on hosts with certain CPU configurations
• Windows hosts: properly fall back to NDIS5 on pre-Vista hosts on silent installations

VirtualBox 5.0.24 (released 2016-06-28)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: reverted to the old I/O-APIC code for now to fix certain regressions with 5.0.22 (bug #15529). This means that the networking performance with certain guests will drop to the 5.0.20 level (bug #15295). One workaround is to disable GRO for Linux guests.
• Main: when taking a screenshot, don't save garbage for blanked screens
• NAT: correctly parse resolv.conf file with multiple separators (5.0.22 regression)
• Storage: fixed a possible corruption of stream optimized VMDK images from VMware when opened in read/write mode for the first time
• Audio: imlemented dynamic re-attaching of input/output devices on Mac OS X hosts
• ACPI: notify the guest when the battery / AC state changes instead of relying on guest polling
• Linux hosts: fixed VERR_VMM_SET_JMP_ABORTED_RESUME Guru Meditations on hosts with Linux 4.6 or later (bug #15439)
• Solaris hosts: make the GUI work on Solaris 10 again (bug #15549)

- wong chee tat :)

VirtualBox 5.0.24 (released 2016-06-28)

VirtualBox 5.0.24 (released 2016-06-28)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: reverted to the old I/O-APIC code for now to fix certain regressions with 5.0.22 (bug #15529). This means that the networking performance with certain guests will drop to the 5.0.20 level (bug #15295). One workaround is to disable GRO for Linux guests.
• Main: when taking a screenshot, don't save garbage for blanked screens
• NAT: correctly parse resolv.conf file with multiple separators (5.0.22 regression)
• Storage: fixed a possible corruption of stream optimized VMDK images from VMware when opened in read/write mode for the first time
• Audio: imlemented dynamic re-attaching of input/output devices on Mac OS X hosts
• ACPI: notify the guest when the battery / AC state changes instead of relying on guest polling
• Linux hosts: fixed VERR_VMM_SET_JMP_ABORTED_RESUME Guru Meditations on hosts with Linux 4.6 or later (bug #15439)
• Solaris hosts: make the GUI work on Solaris 10 again (bug #15549)

Good time to download and have fun!

- wong chee tat :)

VirtualBox 5.0.24

VirtualBox 5.0.24 (released 2016-06-28)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: reverted to the old I/O-APIC code for now to fix certain regressions with 5.0.22 (bug #15529). This means that the networking performance with certain guests will drop to the 5.0.20 level (bug #15295). One workaround is to disable GRO for Linux guests.
• Main: when taking a screenshot, don't save garbage for blanked screens
• NAT: correctly parse resolv.conf file with multiple separators (5.0.22 regression)
• Storage: fixed a possible corruption of stream optimized VMDK images from VMware when opened in read/write mode for the first time
• Audio: imlemented dynamic re-attaching of input/output devices on Mac OS X hosts
• ACPI: notify the guest when the battery / AC state changes instead of relying on guest polling
• Linux hosts: fixed VERR_VMM_SET_JMP_ABORTED_RESUME Guru Meditations on hosts with Linux 4.6 or later (bug #15439)
• Solaris hosts: make the GUI work on Solaris 10 again (bug #15549)

VirtualBox 5.0.22 (released 2016-06-16)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: fixes for certain Intel Atom hosts (bug #14915)
• VMM: properly restore the complete FPU state for 32-bit guests on 64-bit hosts on Intel Sandy Bridge and Ivy Bridge CPUs
• VMM: new I/O-APIC implementation fixing several bugs and improving the performance under certain conditions (bug #15295 and others)
• VMM: fixed a potential Linux guest panic on AMD hosts
• VMM: fixed a potential hang with 32-bit EFI guests on Intel CPUs (VT-x without unrestricted guest execution)
• GUI: don't allow to start subsequent separate VM instances
• GUI: raised upper limit for video capture screen resolution (bug #15432)
• GUI: warn if the VM has less than 128MB VRAM configured and 3D enabled
• Main: when monitoring DNS configuration changes on Windows hosts avoid false positives from competing DHCP renewals. This should fix NAT link flaps when host has multiple DHCP configured interfaces, in particular when the host uses OpnVPN.
• Main: properly display an error message if the VRDE server cannot be enabled at runtime, for example because another service is using the same port
• NAT: Initialize guest address guess for wildcard port-forwarding rules with default guest address (bug #15412)
• VGA: fix for a problem which made certain legacy guests crash under certain conditions (bug #14811)
• OVF: fixed import problems for some appliances using an AHCI controller created by 3rd party applications
• SDK: reduced memory usage in the webservice Java bindings
• Windows hosts: fixed performance regresson with SMP guests (5.0 regression)
• Windows hosts: fixes for the shared clipboard
• Windows hosts: Windows hardening fix
• Windows Additions: fixes to retain the guest display layout when resizing or disabling the guest monitors
• Linux hosts: EL 6.8 fix (bug #15411)
• Linux hosts: Linux 4.7 fix (bug #15459)
• Linux Additions: Linux 4.7 fixes (bug #15444)
• Linux Additions: fix for certain 32-bit guests (5.0.18 regression; bug #15320)
• Linux Additions: fixed mouse pointer offset (5.0.18 regression; bug #15324)
• Linux Additions: made old X.Org releases work again with kernels 3.11 and later (5.0.18 regression; bug #15319)
• Linux Additions: fixed X.Org crash after hard guest reset (5.0.18 regression; bug #15354)
• Linux Additions: don't stop the X11 setup if loading the shared folders module fails (5.0.18 regression)
• Linux Additions: don't complain if the Drag and Drop service is not available on the host
• Solaris Additions: added support for X.org 1.18

VirtualBox 5.0.20 (released 2016-04-28)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• Storage: fixed a regression causing write requests from the BIOS to cause a Guru Meditation with the LsiLogic SCSI controller (5.0.18 regression; bug #15317)
• Storage: several emulation fixes in the BusLogic SCSI controller emulation
• NAT Network: support TCP in DNS proxy (same problem as in bug #14736 for NAT)
• NAT: rework handling of port-forwarding rules (bug #13570)
• NAT: rewrite host resolver to handle more query types and make it asynchronous so that a stalled lookup doesn't block all NAT traffic
• Snapshots: don't crash when restoring a snapshot which has more network adapters than the current state (ie when the snapshot uses ICH9 and the current state uses PIIX3)
• Guest Control: various bugfixes for the copyfrom and copyto commands / API (bug #14336)
• VBoxManage: list processor features on list hostinfo (bug #15334)
• Linux hosts: fix for Linux 4.5 if CONFIG_NET_CLS_ACT is enabled (bug #15327)
• Windows hosts: another fix for recent Windows 10 insider builds (bug #15337)
• Windows hosts: make it work on Windows XP again (5.0.18 regression)
• Windows Additions: fixed performance issues with PowerPoint 2010 and the WDDM graphics drivers if Aero is disabled

VirtualBox 5.0.18 (released 2016-04-18)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• GUI: position off-screen windows to be fully visible again on relaunch in consistence with default-behavior (bug #15226)
• GUI: fixed the View menu / Full-screen Mode behavior on Mac OS X El Capitan
• GUI: fixed a test which allowed to encrypt a hard disk with an empty password
• GUI: fixed a crash under certain conditions during VM shutdown
• GUI: fixed the size of the VM list scrollbar in the VM selector when entering a group
• PC speaker passthrough: fixes (Linux hosts only; bug #627)
• Drag and drop: several fixes
• SATA: fixed hotplug flag handling when EFI is used
• Storage: fixed handling of encrypted disk images with SCSI controllers (bug #14812)
• Storage: fixed possible crash with Solaris 7 if the BusLogic SCSI controller is used
• USB: properly purge non-ASCII characters from USB strings (bugs #8801, #15222)
• NAT Network: fixed 100% CPU load in VBoxNetNAT on Mac OS X under certain circumstances (bug #15223)
• ACPI: fixed ACPI tables to make the display color management settings available again for older Windows versions (4.3.22 regression)
• Guest Control: fixed VBoxManage copyfrom command (bug #14336)
• Snapshots: fixed several problems when removing older snapshots (bug #15206)
• VBoxManage: fixed --verbose output of the guestcontrol command
• Windows hosts: hardening fixes required for recent Windows 10 insider builds (bugs #15245, #15296)
• Windows hosts: fixed support of jumbo frames in with bridged networking (5.0.16 regression; bug #15209)
• Windows hosts: don't prevent receiving multicast traffic if host-only adapters are installed (bug #8698)
• Linux hosts: added support for the new naming scheme of NVME disks when creating raw disks
• Solaris hosts / guests: properly sign the kernel modules (bug #12608)
• Linux hosts / guests: Linux 4.5 fixes (bug #15251)
• Linux hosts / guests: Linux 4.6 fixes (bug #15298)
• Linux Additions: added a kernel graphics driver to support graphics when X.Org does not have root rights (bug #14732)
• Linux/Solaris Additions: fixed several issues causing Linux/Solatis guests using software rendering when 3D acceleration is available
• Windows Additions: fixed a hang with PowerPoint 2010 and the WDDM drivers if Aero is disabled

- wong chee tat :)

Malware Leverages Windows "God Mode" for Persistency

Malware Leverages Windows "God Mode" for Persistency

By SecurityWeek News on April 29, 2016

Researchers from Intel Security recently discovered that a piece of malware dubbed "Dynamer" is taking advantage of a Windows Easter Egg called “God Mode” to gain persistency on an infected machine.

The so called God Mode allows users to create a folder and give it a special name, which turns it into a shortcut to Windows settings and folders such as control panels, My Computer, or printers. The feature was introduced by Microsoft in Windows Vista and can prove a handy tool for administrators and savvy users alike.

However, the Dynamer malware shows that cybercriminals are now abusing the function, mainly because files placed in the master control panel shortcuts in this special folder are not easily accessible via Windows Explorer. McAfee’s Craig Schmugar explains in a blog post that this happens because these folders do not open like other folders, but rather redirect the user.

The malware installs itself into a folder inside of the  %AppData% directory creates a registry run key that persists across reboots. With the help of this key, the malware can execute normally, yet the folder in which the malware was installed cannot be opened directly through Windows Explorer, as it redirects to the RemoteApp and Desktop Connections control panel item.

The folder is named “com4.{241D7C96-F8BF-4F85-B01F-E2B043341A4B},” which is yet another bad thing, Schmugar explains. Because of the “com4” name, Windows considers the folder as being a device, meaning that the user cannot easily delete it.

In fact, the researcher explains, such device names are forbidden by normal Windows Explorer and cmd.exe commands. Given that Windows Windows treats the folder “com4” folder differently, Windows Explorer or typical console commands are useless when attempting to delete it.

However, McAfee researchers say that users can still get rid of this malware, provided that it managed to infiltrate their systems and infect computers. For that, users should terminate Dynamer’s process via Task Manager or other standard tools. Next, they should run a specially crafted command from the command prompt (cmd.exe):

> rd “\\.\%appdata%\com4.{241D7C96-F8BF-4F85-B01F-E2B043341A4B}” /S /Q

Dynamer emerged on the threat landscape several years ago, but most security programs out there should be able to detect it, including Windows Defender for Windows 10 and Windows 8.1, or Microsoft Security Essentials for Windows 7 and Windows Vista, Microsoft says. However, the Trojan is considered a severe threat to users.

Dynamer proves that as the threat landscape evolves, new malware variants are attempting to leverage various operating system functions to perform malicious operations. Recently, attackers were observed abusing PowerShell and Google Docs to deliver the Laziok Trojan, while the PowerWare ransomware was seen earlier this year abusing PowerShell and Office macros to infect computers.

With the release of Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit (EMET) 5.2 last March, Microsoft attempted to mitigate the VBScript God Mode exploitation technique. At the time, the configuration for the ASR mitigation in EMET was improved to stop attempts to run the VBScript extension when loaded in the Internet Explorer's Internet Zone.

- wong chee tat :)

VirtualBox 5.0.16

VirtualBox 5.0.16 (released 2016-03-04)

This is a maintenance release. The following items were fixed and/or added:

• VMM: fixed a problem which could lead to a wrong guest behavior on AMD CPUs (tickets #14831 and #15186)
• GUI: don't try to synchronize the HID LEDs if the VM window is not active or if it's minimized (Windows / Mac OS X hosts only; bug #14302)
• GUI: prevent a crash during startup under rare conditions
• GUI: sub-menu option to disable the guest-OS type overlay in the application dock icon on Mac OS X
• GUI: position off-screen windows to be fully visible again on relaunch
• GUI: hide the VT-x/AMD-V checkbox if raw-mode is not supported (usually Mac OS X hosts; bug #15178)
• PC speaker passthrough: new experimental feature, available on Linux host only
• Audio: several fixes for Mac OS X hosts + guests
• Audio: properly handle default audio device changes (Windows hosts)
• USB: serveral fixes for the xHCI controller (e.g. for webcam passthrough)
• BIOS: fixed int15/AH=83/AL=00 function (4.2.0 regression)
• iPXE: enable the HTTP download protocol on non-Linux hosts (bug #13628)
• Shared folders: fixed a failure to load the saved state under certain circumstances (bug #6314)
• Guest Control: added support for (cached) Active Directory authentication in case the domain controller is not reachable (anymore)
• Serial ports: raised the number of serial ports per VM from 2 to 4 (bug #9109)
• Serial ports: fix for the TCP/IP backend (Windows hosts only; bug #15188)
• SDK: make the Python webservice API binding work again (5.0 regression)
• Seamless mode: fixed a crash under certain circumstances (bug #15106)
• Linux hosts: fixed the /sbin/rcvboxdrv script as well as the missing shebang in two scripts (bugs #15055 and #15057)
• Linux hosts: properly uninstall Python files installed by the .run installer
• Windows hosts: hardening fix required for recent Windows insider builds (bug #14052)
• Windows hosts: fixed Python installation path (bug #13131)
• Windows hosts: support MTU larger than 2 KB with bridged networking (bug #15140)
• Windows hosts / guests: properly sign binaries using a sha-256 certificate (bug #15054)
• Windows Additions: fixed guest property enumeration of logged-in users
• Windows Additions: fixed sporadical failure of the graphics driver in Windows 10 guests (bug #14409)
• Windows Additions: under rare circumstances no mouse movement events were delivered to the guest

- wong chee tat :)