[German]Sophos, the owner of the software sandbox, has just announced that the tool has now been released as open source. The open source release was announced in September 2019.
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I had mentioned Sophos's plans to release Sandboxie as open source in the blog post Sophos releases Sandboxie 5.31.4 for free. Now I have read on Bleeping Computer that the step has been taken. Sophos justifies the move to open source on cost grounds, as the tool was probably never a significant part of Sophos's business. On this web site Sophos has now announced the final release as an open source project.
Sophos is excited to announce that Sandboxie is now an open source tool.
Sandboxie has long been a favorite sandbox-based isolation tool since its original release over fifteen years ago. Now this technology will live on in the hands of its dedicated users.
We are thrilled to give the code to the community. The Sandboxie tool has been built on many years of highly-skilled developer work and is an example of how to integrate with Windows at a very low level.
The Sandboxie user base represents some of the most passionate, forward thinking, and knowledgeable members of the security community, and we hope this announcement will spawn a fresh wave of ideas and use cases.
More details and the download of the source code and the tool can be found on the website www.sandboxie.com. Downloading the source code requires filling out the application form.
David Xanatos, who occasionally comments here on the blog and whose tools I introduced from time to time here in posts, has provided the open source code on GitHub. The installers are available here.
What is Sandboxie?
Sandboxie is an application isolation program that allows you to run other software under Windows in a controlled environment. Sandboxie takes control when installing the application and isolates all file and registry accesses and redirects them to separate files.
Sandboxie's isolation technology separates the installed programs from the underlying operating system. This prevents unwanted changes from being made to personal data, programs, and applications that are safely stored on the hard drive. Sandboxie therefore enables you to test software and later uninstall it from the system without leaving any traces.
