sandbox

Google has improved Flash sandboxing in the latest version of its Chrome browser for Windows, boosting its security and reducing crashes by as much as 20 percent.

The change also means Windows 8 users will be able to use all of a Web site's Flash features in the mode formerly known as Metro.

By sandboxing Flash, a plug-in can crash without taking down the rest of the browser. Sandboxing was introduced in early versions of Chrome to prevent rogue tabs from causing such total browser crashes, and as an anti-malware measure.

Google ported Flash off the aging NPAPI architecture … Read more

To fend off attacks and faulty programming, Apple has implemented sandboxing routines to manage what system resources applications have access to. While the sandboxing process should allow the applications to run as intended by the developer, sometimes an odd bug or configuration error may result in random breaks in functionality.

For example, TextEdit is one of the sandboxed programs that Apple includes in OS X. Sandbox entitlements allow it to save to the filesystem and accept keyboard inputs, among other features, so you can use the program to create documents and edit them. However, if a sandboxing error involving one … Read more

Starting June 1, the Mac App Store will be adopting a new policy that requires applications distributed through it to be sandboxed -- a feature that restricts default access to all system resources except those allowed by specific Apple-defined entitlements. The sandboxing and entitlements are generally voluntarily set up and elected by the developer, but in the case of the App Store, are both mandatory and also scrutinized and approved by Apple. While sandboxing is a great option for protecting users' systems and should offer seamless functionality for most programs, Apple's implementation is too restrictive for some applications to … Read more

On June 1, Apple will begin enforcing sandboxing requirements for all applications distributed through its Mac App Store service. If you've purchased applications from the Mac App Store, you can expect updates to become available in the next week or two.

Sandboxing is a security measure that restricts applications from unintended resource access. When enabled on an application, the default sandbox gives a program no access to any resources. Developers then enable Apple-supplied entitlements for the sandbox that allow access to printing, the network, and filesystem reading and writing, and other features so their program can work properly. The … Read more

An apparent bug is present in OS X 10.7 "Lion" that causes some applications to crash when the system's network location configuration is changed. However, while the system generates a crash report, the applications appear to have not crashed at all.

This issue happens because of a bug with how OS X handles both network location configurations and its process sandboxing routines.

In OS X you can set up different "locations" in the Network system preferences -- convenient configurations for the various network setups you might need for your work. For instance, a home … Read more

Last November Apple announced to its developer community that all applications distributed through its Mac App Store would require sandboxing. Apple initially set the deadline for this requirement to March 1, but recently moved this deadline back a few months to June 1.

Sandboxing is a method of isolating an application's tasks from those of other applications and the system, by allowing it access to only the resources it is intended to access.

This setup prevents any errors in the program from interfering with resources it was not intended to access. For instance, if a program is built to … Read more

Quarantining files has its benefits, but a current bug is causing some trouble.

When you first download a file in OS X the system considers it to be foreign and tags it with a quarantine flag. This flag prevents it from running if it contains executable code, at least until it is scanned and the user is notified that the file contains code and could potentially change files on the computer. If the file is an application, then when you open it the launch services will present a warning that the file was downloaded from the Internet. Once you confirm … Read more

If you've been patiently waiting for a jailbreak solution for your A5-based device--in other words, your iPhone 4S or iPad 2--it should be exciting news that the jailbreak community has gotten its current program out of the sandbox stage, which generally signals an imminent release.

According to a tweet picked up by iDownloadBlog, hacker "planetbeing" has announced that the iPhone 4S/iPad 2 jailbreak has left the sandbox stage of development. He also states that the jailbreak is "turning out to be more complex than X-Gold 618."

X-Gold 618 was the baseband chip in the … Read more

Six-Guns is a freemium sandbox cowboy game that models itself after the popular console game Red Dead Redemption. While it may not be on par graphically with the game it resembles, Six-Guns definitely still has good-looking graphics as you explore a huge world and complete quests. The control system is like in many first-person shooters on the iPhone: move your character using a control stick on the left side, and look around by swiping the screen on the right.

The game is set in both Oregon and Arizona (with a way to fast-travel between regions). As you explore, you'll … Read more