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If I have a VirtualBox VM running Kali Linux, can I use its diagnostic tools to search for malware on the host?

schroeder
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MrHotShot
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  • If the malware exists on host OS than it can spread to VM OS as well. How you are planning to diagnose the malware on host OS from VM? – saurabh Jun 08 '21 at 21:06
  • So it’s possible for the VM to get infected when the main OS is infected but the opposite is not true if I’m correct right? Like if I infected my VM then that won’t reach my main OS? And I wasn’t sure if you can or can’t diagnose the main OS through a Vm I kept searching but didn’t find any answer but I guess you can’t then. – MrHotShot Jun 08 '21 at 21:18
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    This post will help you finding your answers: https://security.stackexchange.com/questions/23452/is-it-safe-to-use-virtual-machines-when-examining-malware – saurabh Jun 08 '21 at 21:25
  • This does help out a lot, many thanks friend! – MrHotShot Jun 08 '21 at 23:13

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Not really in a useful way. A virtual machine is isolated from the host by nature, and therefore knows very little (if anything at all) about the host, much less what files or processes are on it. If you really wanted, you could share a folder into a VM and scan it there, but that won't always be useful.

In general, Kali doesn't really provide much to look for malware with either; you are probably better off using a bootable virus scanner image if you really want an external scan.

multithr3at3d
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