LoveLifeTechnology: Encrypting Virtual Machine-Virtual Box

Hi all. In this short introductory article, I would like to explain you how to encrypt virtual machine in Virtual Box.

Why encrypt VMs?

A propriety code being developed inside a guest (virtual) machine which needs to be confidential from other users using the same host (base) machine.
For a Pentester the exploit code or toolkit should be protected from other users using the same machine.
Much more depending on the purpose for ehich VMs are hosted.

Steps:

- Open the hypervisor (i.e. Virtual Box)

Fig.1

- Select the machine which you want to encrypt and open the settings windows.

Fig.2

- Navigate to Encryption Tab.

Fig.3

- Check the Enable Encryption checkbox to enable encryption and uncheck the checkbox to disable the encryption which will automatically decrypt the virtual machine if already enabled.

- Now we can use two encryption ciphers which we can use AES-XTS256-PLAIN64 and

AES-XTS128-PLAIN64. (I would prefer using AES-XTS256-PLAIN64 since its stronger and secure than other cipher).

Fig.4

- Enter the password which we would require to decrypt and start the virtual machine.

Fig.5

- Click Ok and the machine gets encrypted.

Fig.6

- As we select and start the encrypted machine we get a window pop-up asking for credentials in order to decrypt and load operating system (In my case windows XP SP3).

Fig.7

- In order to check whether the machine is encrypted or not we can navigate to the location address where the VM files are stored. (By default the location address for VM files is: C:\User\<User_Name>\VirtualBox VMs\<Virtual_Machine_Name>\).