PhraseExpander - SBIE2203 Error and crash

[Tridens]

Hello, I'm testing a new piece of software in SBIE. It's called PhraseExpander (https://www.phraseexpander.com)
I'm getting the following error:
SBIE2203 Failed to communicate with Sandboxie Service: *GUIPROXY_00000001 - PhraseExpander.exe [C0000024]

After one (or several) of these messages, the program crashes.

Running Win 10 Pro Anniversary Ed
SBIE Full Version 5.14 64-Bit
Problem occurs with AV/Malware DISABLED, but I'm running
Webroot AV
MalwareBytes Pro

Thanks for any help you can offer.

[Syrinx]

Close everything in the sandbox which you are trying to launch the app in.

Then please try allowing all Window access.
Select the sandbox you are trying to run the program in then right click it inside the Sandboxie Control GUI
Sandbox Settings > Resource Access > Window Access > Edit/Add > * > OK
That's just '*'
nothing else, eg 'all'
Try running it again. It won't update the rules if anything continues to run inside so don't be afraid to terminate the stuff inside before re-launching it.

http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?OpenWinClass

There may be a better solution but I'm feeling lazy/grumpy tonight and one didn't pop into my head from what I saw...feel free to test more~!

[andreanagar]

Hello,
I'm Andrea Nagar, founder and CEO of PhraseExpander.

I thought I'd chime in to help.

PhraseExpander needs to install a keyboard hook to detect the typed keystrokes, thus showing appropriate abbreviations as you type.
We are aware of some issues with Webroot AV. You'd need to disable the identity protection and keystrokes encryption to make PhraseExpander work.

But I feel that the crash is more related to Sandboxie itself. It's hard to say of what these kinds of products do but they certainly block and redirect calls.

Is there any specific concern that you have when trying our software that prevents you from doing a direct installation on your machine?

I'm happy to answer any question you might have here or directly through our support.

Thanks.
Andrea Nagar

[Tridens]

Syrinx,

Thanks so much for being willing to bang out a reply to me when you were lazy/grumpy! I wouldn't know what you're talking about...I NEVER feel those things.

Your solution worked, which is great! Thank you. I have a question, though. Is this just the first step of troubleshooting something like this? Doesn't that solution create big security holes, and kinda nullify using the program in a sandbox? Any further advice would be greatly appreciated.

thanks again!

[Syrinx]

This setting tells Sandboxie to not translate window class names as described above, and also makes all windows in the system accessible to sandboxed programs, and goes a step further to disable a few other windowing-related Sandboxie functions.

Ideally you want to poke as few holes as possible to get a piece of software to run sandboxed.
I installed the program and ran through some tests on a Win 10 VM however the only one that really got me anywhere was allowing OpenWinClass=*

The Resource Access Monitor only ever showed ApplicationManager_DesktopShellWindow as blocked and opening that up didn't solve anything.

In my tests the PhraseExpander software was resulting in the same
SBIE2203 Failed to communicate with Sandboxie Service: *GUIPROXY_00000001 - PhraseExpander.exe [C0000024]
errors but I did not see it crashing.

If yours is crashing then just ignoring (hiding) the SBIE2203 alert won't really help but in my limited tests I was able to do just that and didn't notice any issues outside of being unable to register hotkeys but disabling them got rid of those annoying 'in-app' alerts as well.

Considering the point of this software is to monitor input and offer expanded text I'm not sure it's something that will work well being contained without at least allowing access to all windows. Sorry, maybe someone else will have a better solution but I've come up blank so far.

ooh and the dev chimed in, nice!

[Tridens]

@Syrinx,

Thanks again for responding. Really appreciate the community here on sbie. I guess for now I'll just have to run it with the modification you suggested. I'm not enough of an advanced user to really know what I'm risking in doing so, and if there's any benefit to bothering with running via SBIE if I have to open it up with the OpenWinClass * (all) setting.

@Andrea

Thank you for replying. Glad to see you here on sandboxie.com! To answer your question, I always install new programs I'm testing in Sandboxie, for several reasons 1) it minimizes initial security risk through containment, 2) if I decide to uninstall it's very easy and leaves no unwanted traces behind (delete or empty sandbox and you're done!). In fact, if it's not compatible enough to do this I often just delete it and never pursue evaluating it!

This is especially true with smaller / lesser known companies for which there's a smaller installed user base and therefore more potential risk. And all the more so when the program, by its very nature and intended purpose, could function as a key-logger. (See this link re: SBIE and key-loggers: http://www.sandboxie.com/index.php?Freq ... KeyLoggers ) No offense intended...this is just generally accepted security wisdom. I wouldn't be trialing PhraseExpander if I assumed there was a problem!

Once I've tested adequately, I install the programs traditionally and then run them within a sandbox. If I decide to stick with PhraseExpander I'll do just that.

Thanks for your offer of help.