What is Sandbox?

Understanding Sandbox

An isolated test environment that simulates the production environment but will not affect production components/data. A sandbox is a controlled isolated execution environment where untrusted programs or code can run without affecting production systems data or other applications. Sandboxes restrict access to resources and monitor behavior enabling safe testing analysis and execution of potentially risky code or applications. Sandboxing is referenced in standards like NIST SP 800-53 OWASP Application Security Verification Standard and various secure development frameworks. Organizations implement sandboxing through virtualization containerization application isolation technologies browser sandboxes and security monitoring systems. For example a cybersecurity team might implement an automated malware analysis sandbox where suspicious files can be executed and monitored in isolation capturing behavioral indicators network connections and system changes to determine if the files are malicious without risking infection of production systems. Related terms Virtualization Containerization Isolation Virtual machine Application containment Secure testing Malware analysis Protected environment.