Sandbox(ing)
Small, secure test area
A sandbox is a small, sealed-off version of an environment offering a minimal set of services, and is used as a test area. Actions carried out within the sandbox are safely contained within the area and cannot leak out to affect more important parts of a system.
Sandboxing is used within security software to unpack compressed or encrypted files, or to analyse the behaviour of unknown items. Larger-scale sandboxing tools are available for improving the security of computing environments - for example, browser sandboxes seal web browsers off from the host system, preventing malware from damaging it.
This month's VB100 test saw some major changes and a radical overhaul of the VB100 test methodology - for the first time allowing products to use their 'cloud' look-up systems. John Hawes has all the details.