Browser Appliance

Overview
The Browser Appliance is a ready-to-use virtual machine, which allows to:
  • browse the World Wild Web without ever worrying of being 0wned by a malicious web page,
  • start experimenting with an Enterprise-class Linux distribution without rebooting or installing anything else than the vmplayer.
The Operating System and Browser are encapsulated in a disposable virtual machine.
If anything goes wrong, delete and start over again; your underlying Operating System will not be modified.

Download
Build Date Browser VersionLinux DistributionKernel VersionVMware Tools
(VBoxAdditions)		 7-Zip MD5sum
Feb 8, 2012 Firefox 10.0Scientific Linux 6.02.6.32-220.4.1.el6 8.3.12-559003
(4.1.8_75467)		 Download 3e7a8cf2eb34e20bea1b4e8d28d01fc8
Nov 10, 2011 Firefox 8.0Scientific Linux 6.02.6.32-131.17.1.el6 8.3.12-493255
(4.1.4_74713)		 Download 3b30c5f910f160a39bfd88ebc5f5ab8b
Sep 30, 2011 Firefox 7.0.1Scientific Linux 6.02.6.32-131.12.1.el6 8.3.7-434937
(4.1.0_73009)		 Download ddff2a71294500fd86b361f1b6dc4fc9
Sep 2, 2011 Firefox 6.0.1Scientific Linux 6.02.6.32-131.12.1.el6 8.3.7-434937 Download d7df4db3b6deb9a9756d7dcd01c1db6a
Jun 21, 2011 Firefox 5.0Scientific Linux 6.02.6.32-131.2.1.el68.3.7-381511 Download 925566aad3d578f3df37fa0b91d7f012
May 25, 2011 Firefox 4.0.1CentOS 5.62.6.18-238.5.1.el58.4.6-385536 Download c384300707bc7d6ee523da4eb973ec32
May 25, 2011 Firefox 3.6.17CentOS 5.62.6.18-238.5.1.el58.4.6-385536 Download 48db7a1db66335fcf9773a9001798bfc
Jan 21, 2011 Firefox 4 beta 9CentOS 5.52.6.18-194.32.1.el58.4.5-324285 Download b1f10865d5b3ef005c6003b441840cca
Jan 11, 2011 Firefox 3.6.13CentOS 5.52.6.18-194.32.1.el58.4.5-324285 Download 42a18b84cbb79deaa93f21fbbeb8c134
Jul 22, 2010 Firefox 3.6.7CentOS 5.52.6.18-194.8.1.el58.4.2-261024 Download f552b378ddc75f2fbd5736184df1b683
The archives are compressed with 7-Zip.

Configuration
Power Users may wish to review and adjust several parameters in the Browser-Appliance.vmx configuration file using a text editor. For security reasons, HGFS was disabled by default.

Using the browser appliance:
You can download the Browser Appliance from the Download section above. From the VMware website, you can also download VMware Player, a free application that you can use to run the Browser Appliance.

To run the Browser Appliance, simply uncompress the download file to your local hard drive (using 7-Zip). Then:
  • Launch VMware Player
  • In the dialog box, browse for Virtual Machine Configuration File, browse to the directory where you installed the Browser Appliance, select the file Browser-Appliance.vmx, and click Open.
The Browser Appliance powers on automatically, and the Linux operating system, provided with the Browser Appliance, boots up. This may take several minutes. Then the Mozilla Firefox browser starts automatically. Enter a URL in the location field at the top of the browser and click Go.

Installing the Adobe Flash Player plugin:
Firefox is the default browser for this Browser Appliance. To install the Adobe Flash Player plugin for Firefox:
  1. Close Firefox
  2. Double-click the Terminal icon on the Desktop
  3. Type this on the command line, then press Enter: sudo yum install -y flash-plugin
  4. Wait until installation is complete
  5. Start Firefox from the Desktop icon
Changing the Browser Appliance password:
The Browser Appliance has password protection for administrative functions. The Browser Appliance user and password are both initially set to vmware. To change the Browser Appliance password:
  1. From the System menu, select Preferences > About Me to display a dialog box where you can enter personal user information.
  2. In the upper right of the dialog box, click Change Password.
  3. In the Change Password dialog box, enter your old password (vmware, by default) and your new password, and click Change Password.
You can also change your password in a terminal window:
  1. Double-click the Terminal icon on the Desktop
  2. At the prompt, enter passwd
  3. Enter your current password (vmware by default) and new password.
To obtain root privileges in the Browser Appliance:
  1. Double-click the Terminal icon on the Desktop
  2. At the prompt, enter sudo su
  3. At the Password prompt, enter your Browser Appliance password (vmware by default).
Set up "autoRevert on shutdown":
By default, the Browser Appliance is set to save your changes (such as proxy settings, passwords, bookmarks) when you shut down. If you want the Browser Appliance to revert to its original state on shutdown, you can edit the Browser Appliance configuration (.vmx) file so that the appliance reverts on shutdown:
  1. In a text editor, go to the folder containing your Browser Appliance files, and open the Browser Appliance configuration file: Browser-Appliance.vmx.
  2. To have the Browser Appliance revert on shutdown, add the following lines to the configuration file:
    • scsi0:0.mode = "independent-nonpersistent"
    • ide0:0.mode = "independent-nonpersistent"
    • snapshot.action = "autoRevert"
    • snapshot.disabled = "TRUE"
This protects your computer from any spyware or other malware that is transferred to the Browser Appliance while you are browsing. However, setting the Browser Appliance to revert on shutdown will cause the Browser Appliance to discard changes you have made in the current session.

To close the Browser Appliance:
  1. From the System menu in the virtual machine, select Shut Down
  2. Click Shut down.
To remove the Browser Appliance, simply delete the directory containing your Browser Appliance files. There is no uninstallation procedure to perform.