Wine

[Richard L. Hamilton]

Sure, a disposable, isolated environment (esp. one meant for extreme uses, like a Kali Linux VM) is great for suspicious software...or for testing less than robust software with possibly maliciously crafted input. Certainly NOT the example I had in mind, although one might argue that XMP or EXIF (as applicable) library exploits might make my example risky depending on the files being processed.

But by that criteria, anything but (maybe) a binary file editor with no size or content restrictions beyond what the operating system allows could be vulnerable to maliciously crafted input files, which doesn't even count that it just might be possible to construct a file name that is an attack on the OS itself, given complications like UTF-16 normalization, etc.

So IMO the question isn't whether you're running a program (that works fine in its own environment) in yours with a VM vs some less isolating means, but whether you'd want to run the program (or run it on certain input) at all even if it was native, in a valuable environment. I don't know if for example Wine could be modified to incorporate (invisibly to what it ran) additional macOS security features like sandboxing, which would make something run under it not much more dangerous than a native app.

TL/DR: I wouldn't run something that I downloaded and didn't have some confidence in (recommendations from reputable sites, original download site, maybe even signed) regardless of whether it was native, in Wine, or in a VM, unless I was in the business of (properly and carefully) testing software that didn't even meet that minimum standard of trusted-ness.

> On May 1, 2023, at 09:47, Sean McLinden <mclinden at informed.net> wrote:
> 
> 
> Yeah, as long as you aren't analyzing malware. WannaCry in Wine could encrypt the contents of the user's HOME directory.
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Richard L. Hamilton" <rlhamil at smart.net>
> To: "Sean McLinden" <mclinden at informed.net>
> Cc: "Christoph Kukulies" <kuku at kukulies.org>, "macports-users list" <macports-users at lists.macports.org>
> Sent: Monday, May 1, 2023 7:44:22 AM
> Subject: Re: Wine
> 
> Sure, but for some things Wine is good enough and even better. Back in Mojave (32-bit support) and earlier, one could use WineBottler to make a Mac app using Wine that invoked a Windows program. I had that for abc_tags.exe, which is more convenient than VLC for fixing batches of mis-tagged AVI files. No need to fire up a full VM for that. And yes, I have Parallels and VirtualBox and other virtualization products for other platforms; nothing against full virtualization, but sometimes it's overkill.
> 
>> On May 1, 2023, at 07:11, Sean McLinden <mclinden at informed.net> wrote:
>> 
>> 
>> If you don't mind spending a few bucks, Parallels Desktop for Mac supports a full-featured Windows 11 VM.
>> 
>> Sean
>> 
>> 
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Christoph Kukulies" <kuku at kukulies.org>
>> To: macports-users at lists.macports.org
>> Sent: Sunday, April 30, 2023 4:45:03 AM
>> Subject: Wine
>> 
>> Does macports support Wine ?
>> 
>> —
>> Christoph
>> 
>