How to detect if my application is running in a virtual machine?

Question

How can I detect (.NET or Win32) if my application is running in a virtual machine?

Answer 1

This is what I use:

using (var searcher = new System.Management.ManagementObjectSearcher("Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem"))
{
  using (var items = searcher.Get())
  {
    foreach (var item in items)
    {
      string manufacturer = item["Manufacturer"].ToString().ToLower();
      if ((manufacturer == "microsoft corporation" && item["Model"].ToString().ToUpperInvariant().Contains("VIRTUAL"))
          || manufacturer.Contains("vmware")
          || item["Model"].ToString() == "VirtualBox")
      {
        return true;
      }
    }
  }
}
return false;

Edit 2014-12-02: Updated code so that it no longer detects a Microsoft Surface Pro as a VM. Thanks to Erik Funkenbusch for pointing this out.

Edit 2017-06-29: Updated code so that it also checks the value of the HypervisorPresent property.

Edit 2018-02-05: removed check for the HypervisorPresent property since it's incorrect. This property could return true if running on the host O/S on a hyper-V server.

Answer 2

According to Virtual PC Guy's blog post "Detecting Microsoft virtual machines", you can use WMI to check the manufacturer of the motherboard. In PowerShell:

 (gwmi Win32_BaseBoard).Manufacturer -eq "Microsoft Corporation"

Answer 3

This C function will detect VM Guest OS: (Tested on Windows, compiled with Visual Studio)

#include <intrin.h>

    bool isGuestOSVM()
    {
        unsigned int cpuInfo[4];
        __cpuid((int*)cpuInfo,1);
        return ((cpuInfo[2] >> 31) & 1) == 1;
    }

Answer 4

Jay Abuzi showed the solution in powershell. Here's the same as a c# function:

   /// <summary>
    /// Detect if this OS runs in a virtual machine
    /// 
    /// http://blogs.msdn.com/b/virtual_pc_guy/archive/2005/10/27/484479.aspx
    /// 
    /// Microsoft themselves say you can see that by looking at the motherboard via wmi
    /// </summary>
    /// <returns>false</returns> if it runs on a fysical machine
    public bool DetectVirtualMachine()
    {
        bool result = false;
      const  string  MICROSOFTCORPORATION ="microsoft corporation";
        try
        {
            ManagementObjectSearcher searcher =
                new ManagementObjectSearcher("root\\CIMV2","SELECT * FROM Win32_BaseBoard");

            foreach (ManagementObject queryObj in searcher.Get())
            {
               result =  queryObj["Manufacturer"].ToString().ToLower() == MICROSOFTCORPORATION.ToLower();
            }
            return result;
        }
        catch (ManagementException ex)
        {
            return result;
        }
    }

Answer 5

Remember you should not just check popular VM model,manufacturer name from wmi, You should also check difference between reality and virtualization.
VM don't have much features.
1) check-if-cpu-temperature-information-is-available

wmic /namespace:\\root\WMI path MSAcpi_ThermalZoneTemperature get CurrentTemperature
//On Real PC
//CurrentTemperature
//3147

//On VM
//Node - Admin
//Error:
//Description not supported

Tested on vmware,virtualbox,windows server,app.any.run sandbox.

2) Win32_PortConnector

Get-WmiObject Win32_PortConnector
//On Vm it is null

//On real pc it looks something like that
Tag                         : Port Connector 0
ConnectorType               : {23, 3}
SerialNumber                :
ExternalReferenceDesignator :
PortType                    : 2

Answer 6

public static bool isVirtualMachine()
{
    const string MICROSOFTCORPORATION = "microsoft corporation";
    const string VMWARE = "vmware"; 

    foreach (var item in new ManagementObjectSearcher("Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem").Get())
    {
        string manufacturer = item["Manufacturer"].ToString().ToLower();
        // Check the Manufacturer (eg: vmware, inc)
        if (manufacturer.Contains(MICROSOFTCORPORATION) || manufacturer.Contains(VMWARE))  
        {
            return true;
        }

        // Also, check the model (eg: VMware Virtual Platform)
        if (item["Model"] != null)
        {
            string model = item["Model"].ToString().ToLower();
            if (model.Contains(MICROSOFTCORPORATION) || model.Contains(VMWARE)) 
            {
                return true;
            }
        }
    }
    return false;
}

Answer 7

For Lower level Tests I recommend looking at ScoopyNG [1]. It is a collection of known low-level, well working vm detection methods, albeit being a little dated.

If you really want to rely on other things, like installed tools (VM* Additions) , these are much easier to "fake".

This [2] Blog Post also has a pretty nice overview, from low level asm stuff, checking for specific DLLs, filepaths and registry keys to check.

[1] http://trapkit.de/research/vmm/scoopyng/index.html

[2] http://securitykitten.github.io/vm-checking-and-detecting/

Answer 8

this C++ code will detect Vmware Products such as express,esx,fusion or workstation

// VMWareDetector.cpp : Defines the entry point for the console application.
//

#include "stdafx.h"
#include "windows.h"
#include <conio.h>
void CheckVM(void); 
int main()
{
    CheckVM(); 
    _getch(); 
    return 0;
}

void CheckVM(void)
{
    unsigned int    a, b;

    __try {
        __asm {

            // save register values on the stack
            push eax
            push ebx
            push ecx
            push edx

            // perform fingerprint
            mov eax, 'VMXh' // VMware magic value (0x564D5868)
            mov ecx, 0Ah // special version cmd (0x0a)
            mov dx, 'VX' // special VMware I/O port (0x5658)

            in eax, dx // special I/O cmd

            mov a, ebx // data 
            mov b, ecx // data (eax gets also modified
                       // but will not be evaluated)

                       // restore register values from the stack
                       pop edx
                       pop ecx
                       pop ebx
                       pop eax
        }
    }
    __except (EXCEPTION_EXECUTE_HANDLER) {}
    printf("\n[+] Debug : [ a=%x ; b=%d ]\n\n", a, b);
    if (a == 'VMXh') { // is the value equal to the VMware magic value?
        printf("Result  : VMware detected\nVersion : ");
        if (b == 1)
            printf("Express\n\n");
        else if (b == 2)
            printf("ESX\n\n");
        else if (b == 3)
            printf("GSX\n\n");
        else if (b == 4)
            printf("Workstation\n\n");
        else
            printf("unknown version\n\n");
    }
    else
        printf("Result  : Not Detected\n\n");
}

Answer 9

The easiest way I found to figure out whether my C# app is running on a vmware VM or not is to check the MAC address of the NIC card(s). If it's a VMware VM it would always be: 00:50:56:XX:YY:ZZ

You may enumerate through the NICs as resolved here.

Answer 10

I have tested for 3 types - VirtualBox,Wmware and Huper-V

foreach (var mo in "Select * from Win32_ComputerSystem")
{
    var model = (string)mo["Model"];

    if (model == "VirtualBox" ||
        model == "Virtual Machine" ||
        model.StartsWith("VMware"))
    {
        return true;
    }
}
return false;

Answer 11

I wanted to make this configurable so I converted @RobSiklos answer to a WMI query. Now I can put the query in a config location and change it when needed.

private static bool IsVirtual()
{
    using (var searcher = new System
        .Management
        .ManagementObjectSearcher(@"SELECT * from Win32_ComputerSystem 
                                    WHERE (Manufacturer LIKE '%microsoft corporation%' AND Model LIKE '%virtual%')
                                    OR Manufacturer LIKE '%vmware%'
                                    OR Model LIKE '%VirtualBox%'"))
    {
        using (System.Management.ManagementObjectCollection items = searcher.Get())
        {
            if (items.Count > 0)
            {
                return true;
            }
        }
    }

    return false;
}

WQL Reference:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/wmisdk/wql-sql-for-wmi

Answer 12

From Super User, this is the answer: look at the graphics driver. This is the code:

Dim driver As New ManagementObjectSearcher("Select * from Win32_PnPSignedDriver")
Dim driver_info As ManagementObject
Dim name As String
For Each driver_info In driver.Get()
    caption = driver_info("DeviceName").ToString()
    If caption.Contains("Standard") and caption.Contains("VGA") Then
        ' it's virtual machine
        ' do anything you need
    End If
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