Privacy

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Extension Pack in VirtualBox, is there a privacy risk? (lemmy.dbzer0.com)

submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by Dsklnsadog@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/privacy@lemmy.ml

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Hello, I try to keep my Debian laptop as private as possible, but for work, I need to use Windows software, so I run a VirtualBox with Windows 11. My PC runs smoothly without any issues, but I need to access my specific hardware USB ports, and it doesn't recognize them. I read that I need to install the Extension Pack, so I downloaded it, but before installing it, I get a warning message that seems to suggest I'm accepting some risk to my computer. I don't really understand this stuff, so I wanted to ask the following:

Is there any security or privacy risk associated with the VirtualBox Extension Pack?

Is there any other way to access my USB-C devices without installing it? (I've already tried selecting USB 2.0 and 3.0, but the list shows "no device available").

Thank you very much to whoever responds.

PS: Also I found this on the Internet: "The user agreement VirtualBox extension pack states of sharing a user’s data to the US govt. including the hardware information and so on. Does it make sense even if I use Tails/Whonix for anonymity?" :-/

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[–] Kangie@lemmy.srcfiles.zip 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Why are you using VirtualBox for this anyway?

KVM/QEMU + Virt-manager all the way.

[–] LaggyKar@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago (2 children)

How do you migrate a Windows VM to virt-manager (without any risk of invalidating the license)?

[–] Kangie@lemmy.srcfiles.zip 2 points 1 year ago

That's a great question. Mostly it'd be a matter of exporting and then importing / converting the disk image and standing up similar VM "hardware".

You might still need to reactivate the licence; I'm not sure if the virtual hardware move will trip activation.

[–] hackris@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 year ago

Do whatever you want, then use MAS to activate Windows again :)