Thursday, September 28, 2023

Moving a virtual box vm to another machine

I rebuilt a windows machine and wanted a Virtual Box virtual machine using Ubuntu. Guest additions was already installed and the Ubuntu was getting setup nicely. I was able to simply move the VM’s from one machine to the other with just a USB hard drive.

Copy the VM folders from VirtualBox VMs folder in the user’s home directory. If your windows machine is named bob then the path would be c:\Users\bob\VirtualBox VMs.

Install Virtualbox on the new machine. Start virtualbox and select add from the top menu. Navigate to the folder with your desired vm. Click through the folders till you get the .vhd file, and that’s it.

How strong should I make my passwords?

I have recently tried some password cracking tools. These programs are very good are cracking a password. They can tell the user how long it could take. Simple dictionary words and numbers can take a few minutes. As soon as you adding punctuation and special characters that number jumps to days. The more characters will make jump even more days.

Pass phrases are better. Here is an example: Be here @8!

Basic tips for good passwords are as follows.

  • Minimum of 8 characters
  • Capitalize a character or two
  • Add special characters.
  • Avoid dictionary words.

Zip Opener / Trojan Virus – download

While trying to learn Backtrack I somehow clicked on something that initiated a download of ZipOpenerSetup.exe. The AVG antivirus caught a trojan virus. Here are the pages I was on:

http://www.backtrack-linux.org/downloads/

I was downloading several items, so when an installer popped up I choose to run it. That’s when AVG jumped in. I wondered why I was installing a Zip program. I already have several. I canceled the install and it took me to this page.

http://www.thenewzipopenerfun.com/gb/uninstall/?sr=gb&lp=sag&cc=US&c=1

http://www.thenewzipopenerfun.com/

By using the URL above I found where to download the software I am labeling as Malware.

Beware of what downloads you click on!

When googling “ZipOpener malware” I found some people had/have issues with this, and I don’t find a page to download it. I was either careless with my mouse clicks, could be cross-site scripting, or it could have been something else.

Top it all off I realized it left a desktop icon so I would complete the installation.
zip_opener_continute_icon

I ran a Malware Bytes scan and it returned 7 items it found as known threats, and the reinstall for Zip Opener was one of them. There were also some other exe files.

zip_opener_malware_bytes

Be careful out there.

More info:
http://thundercloud.net/infoave/new/be-very-careful-when-downloading-slow-down-read-be-wary-and-take-your-time/