Does WMvare Workstation Pro spy on you during using a guest?

[Sergej_Betcher]

Hello I am new in the virtualization,

I have Ubuntu 20.04 on my PC, and I always sometimes need windows Apps, so I decided to buy Workstation Pro for Linux this is relay expensive!

But it offers the snapshot possibility and the audio quality in supported devices like sound over forwarded bluetooth dongles whit a Bluetooth headset is much better in sound quality than in virtualbox from Oracle.

But can some one explain me why Vmware is spying ?

Look this video that I done, for showing. I dint understand whats happened and why vmware wants copy of each file that I create inside the guest ? Where the files are transferred to ?

Video : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gFCtL1-MhZ4

also attached in this post

Any ideas?

With best Regards newbie Sergej

[scott28tt]

@Sergej_Betcher 

Moderator: Please try and create threads in the area for the product used - moved to Workstation Pro Discussions, nothing to do with AppDefense.

[ender_]

The log file you showed is used for debugging; I think you can disable it through VM Settings → Options → Advanced - try setting "Gather debugging information" to None.

As for copying the file from the VM, I'm not sure what you've done - normally it's triggered if you copy the file inside the guest, then paste outside, or if you drag and drop the file from the guest to the host (I can see that copying starts after you move the mouse outside; if you didn't try pasting then, this could be a bug). You can disable this in VM Settings → Options → Guest Isolation - uncheck "Enable drag and drop" and "Enable copy and paste".

[Sergej_Betcher]

Hello ender_

thank you for your replay.

Now its reproducible steps to reproduce:

Enable copy paste in settings:

1) VM Settings → Options → Guest Isolation - Enable copy and paste (default enabled)

2) than start the windows 10 guest, login inside

3) start copy large files inside this guest

4) during the copy process, move the mouse outside of this guest (in my case moving the mouse to the second display, you don't need press mouse keys, just move the mouse away from Workstation)

=> the copy notification in the workstation appears

where the Workstation copy this files to ?

[wila]

Hi,

Weird..
That would normally require you to initiate a file "paste from clipboard" action to do first.
Just moving the mouse outside of the guest isn't that.

All of the clipboard integration is done via vmware-tools (normally open-vm-tools-desktop in Linux).
Uninstalling that would certainly disable this, but you might be able keep it as it will otherwise remove more functionality.

AFAICT the file host copy functionality is controlled by the following vmx variable (not tried, just guessing by its name)

isolation.tools.hostCopy.disable = "TRUE"

Add the line above to the .vmx with the guest shut down.

Then try again.

--
Wil

[Sergej_Betcher]

Hello all,

the parameter :

isolation.tools.hostCopy.disable = "TRUE"

inside vmx file dont helps ... behavior exists if this is set for the vm.

mystical thing is i disabled only "Enable drag and drop" in the gui settings ... but the behavior exists still and they coppy the files in my case to :

/home/sergej/.cache/vmware/drag_and_drop

if i disable both setting "drag and drop" and "copy and paste" ... this behavior seams to go ...but i somtimes need copy paste to host ...

why Vmware needs files from my personal VM ?