Removing Viruses, Malware, and other software in a simulation

February 3, 2015 8:27 AM

I'm teaching people how to perform computer maintenance which includes cleaning up malicious software. I need to figure out how to do this without damaging equipment.

Wondering if anyone knew if there is a website or service that offers an infected "virtual" pc that you can either download (and run in a virtual player) or work remotely on? My google fu is failing.

I do have access to a number of computers that I could infect on purpose but I did not have access to any rollback / imagining software.

Any other suggestions?

Thanks!

posted by bleucube to Computers & Internet (8 answers total)

You could use any virtualizing environment (e.g., Parallels, VMware, VirtualBox) on those computers. Once you have an infected environment—or create one—you can save that image. To teach people, who fire up VMWare, run it full-screen (so it looks like the computer is solely run the virtualized environment), and let them have at it. When they're done, you shut down the virtualized instance and don't save your changes.
posted by waldo at 8:37 AM on February 3, 2015 [3 favorites]

Amazon Workspaces + EICAR malware test file
posted by rada at 8:47 AM on February 3, 2015 [1 favorite]

If you use a virtualizing environment, I recommend using a different host OS from the guest; Linux with a Windows guest would be my go-to. This avoids anything braindead happening.
posted by sonic meat machine at 9:23 AM on February 3, 2015 [2 favorites]

rada, while I admire the idea behind the malware test file, it is pretty much the definition of a bogus test. Even the most incompetent AV software will implement a special case for it, it doesn't take any evasive action, and it's the same every time it's used. It's... almost exactly wrong as a test.
posted by sonic meat machine at 9:28 AM on February 3, 2015

sonic, isn't that what OP is asking for, a bogus test on a bogus desktop?
posted by rada at 9:55 AM on February 3, 2015

No, OP's wanting to give people practice at ferreting out infections. That would most likely require a more realistic infection scenario.
posted by sonic meat machine at 10:08 AM on February 3, 2015

It sounds like a perfect situation to use Rosenthal's virus simulator.
posted by hz37 at 10:08 AM on February 3, 2015

I need to figure out how to do this without damaging equipment.

Install Windows in a VirtualBox and follow the How-To Geek.
posted by flabdablet at 11:36 AM on February 3, 2015