Completely invisible but executable files inside VirtualBox shared folders

[Hiewoo7k]

It seems to be possible to completely hide files inside a shared directory in a virtual machine.

POC (tested in VirtualBox 4.3.10, emulating Debian Linux 3.2.0)

$ cd shared_folder
$ cp /bin/ls ls
$ mv ls $(python -c "print '\xff'")
$ ls -a
.  ..

but the file is there and can be executed!

$ ./$(python -c "print '\xff'") --help
Usage: ./� [OPTION]... [FILE]...
List information about the FILEs (the current directory by default).
...

Also, you can't autocomplete its name in your terminal nor delete it with a pattern (like: rm *)

[Frank Mehnert]

I'm not able to reproduce this problem. When I try to rename the file I get a "protocol error" in the guest. I think the host does not allow to create this file name. Which Linux distribution are you using and which locale do you have set on the host?

[Hiewoo7k]

Host info:

Linux 3.13.0-24-generic #47-Ubuntu x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux

Host locale info:

LANG=en_US.UTF-8
LANGUAGE=
LC_CTYPE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_NUMERIC=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_TIME=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_COLLATE="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_MONETARY=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_MESSAGES="en_US.UTF-8"
LC_PAPER=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_NAME=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_ADDRESS=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_TELEPHONE=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_MEASUREMENT=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_IDENTIFICATION=fr_FR.UTF-8
LC_ALL=

[aeichner]

Please reopen if still relevant with a recent VirtualBox release.