Sandbox

Secure Sandbox (beta)

The Secure Sandbox runs apps in mini VMs, each with its own server. Every app opens as its own Mac app, with its own window and Dock icon, and nothing it does can reach the internet except through the server you pick for its mini VM. If that server stops working, the app is cut off; it never falls back to your normal connection.

Nothing is downloaded until you open the sandbox for the first time.

Getting it

1. Click Sandbox in the main window's toolbar or in the menu bar panel.
2. The first time, a sheet shows the download size and how much memory the sandbox may use. Click Download, or Not Now.
3. When the download is checked and installed, click Open Sandbox. From then on, Sandbox opens the Sandbox window directly.

The download goes through V2Mac's connection when you are connected. V2Mac accepts only the exact sandbox version it was released with, so a changed download is refused.

The Sandbox window

• Start / Stop start or stop the sandbox. It also starts by itself when you open a sandbox app, and stops 5 minutes after the last one closes.
• Add Mini VM:
  • Empty: a new mini VM with no apps.
  • Templates: a mini VM with a ready set of apps from the store.
  • Clone: a copy of an existing mini VM, its apps and data.
• Each row shows a mini VM, its exit status and its Exit picker:
  • green: the place its traffic leaves from, for example "Frankfurt";
  • red Not connected: the server stopped working. Apps in it are cut off, and you get one notification. Pick another server; V2Mac never switches on its own;
  • No exit (blocked): the mini VM has no internet at all.
• Click an app in a row to open it.

Apps

Open the ⋯ menu of a mini VM, then Add App and pick an app from the store list. Before it installs, V2Mac lists what the app asks for:

• Use the clipboard
• Read and write this mini VM's Shared folder
• Use the SSH keys in your Mac's ssh-agent, after asking you
• Play sound, after asking you
• Use the microphone, after asking you

Choose Allow and Install, Install Without These or Cancel.

The last three are asked again when the app uses them: the first time an open app plays sound, opens the microphone or uses your SSH keys, V2Mac asks Allow, Don't Allow or Always Allow. Allow holds until the app is closed. Until you answer, the app waits; if you don't allow it, it gets nothing.

Each installed app appears as a Mac app in ~/Applications/V2Mac Sandbox, named "App — Mini VM", with an icon in the mini VM's colour. Window apps open in their own Mac window; terminal apps open in Terminal.

Right-click an app in the Sandbox window for:

• Permissions: for sound, the microphone and SSH keys, choose Ask, Always Allow or Don't Allow.
• Verify Installation…: where it came from (repository and commit), its permissions, and whether its files are unchanged since it was published. "Verified" means unchanged, not "safe".
• Update to … when the store has a newer version.
• Remove.

An app withdrawn from the store shows a warning sign; open Verify Installation… to see why. Its data is kept.

Mini VM menu

The ⋯ menu of each mini VM also has:

• Paste from Mac / Copy to Mac: whether ⌘V in its apps pastes your Mac's clipboard, and whether copying in its apps reaches your Mac.
• Show Shared Folder: ~/V2Mac Sandbox/<mini VM>/Shared, seen as ~/Shared by its apps (only apps you allowed). Files the mini VM writes there are marked as downloaded, so macOS checks them before they open.
• Disposable: its data is erased whenever the sandbox stops.
• Clone, Wipe Data… and Delete….

Settings → Sandbox

• Version: the installed sandbox. When an update of V2Mac needs a newer sandbox, an update button appears beside Sandbox in the sidebar (with a notification and a card in the menu bar), and Update Now downloads it. Your mini VMs and their data stay; open sandbox apps close first. An update downloads only what changed, usually a few megabytes; a part that fails its check is downloaded in full.
• Memory limit: the most memory the sandbox may use while it runs. A new limit applies from its next start.
• Disk space used, and Remove Sandbox…, which deletes the sandbox, every mini VM with its data, and the sandbox apps. You can download it again later.

Notes

• Quitting V2Mac with sandbox apps open asks whether to quit them too; they never run without V2Mac.
• The sandbox has its own connection to each mini VM's server. It keeps working when V2Mac is disconnected, on another server, or in TUN mode.
• Each app sees only its own mini VM: the place and time zone of its exit, its home folder and, if allowed, the Shared folder. Not your Mac's files, network or other mini VMs.
• Apps come from the V2Mac store, which is signed. Developers can make their own from the plugin template.