Sandbox
An isolated test environment where suspicious programs can be executed and observed safely.
A sandbox is an isolated environment where unknown or suspicious programs are executed without endangering the host system. Antivirus solutions use sandboxes to observe new malware samples and analyse their behaviour patterns.
Modern browsers also use sandboxing to isolate websites from each other and from the operating system.
Why this matters in 2026
Browser sandboxing is the most important defence against drive-by downloads in 2026: Chrome, Edge and Firefox isolate every tab into its own process with strict OS permissions. Even if malicious code compromises a tab, it cannot reach the host system without breaking out of the sandbox – a zero-day exploit that ranks among the most expensive in 2026.
How to protect yourself
Keep the browser up to date – sandbox improvements ship with every major version. Enable "Site Isolation" in chrome://flags (leave it off on very slow devices). Open suspicious PDFs in a dedicated sandbox (e.g. the browser PDF viewer instead of Adobe Acrobat Desktop).