Security Best Practices for LabVIEW VI Files

Updated Dec 22, 2017

Reported In

Software

  • LabVIEW Base
  • LabVIEW Full

Issue Details


What best practices can I follow to protect myself from potentially malicious VI files?

Solution

A virtual instrument (VI) file is similar to any executable file such as EXE and DLL. You should exercise the same precautions with a VI file as you would with a EXE or DLL file.

 

The following guidelines help protect you from security issues related to VI files:

  • Only run VI files that come from a trusted source.  VI files downloaded from the Internet or received by e-mail should not be trusted.
  • Only run VI files from a safe location such as a protected Windows directory or a directory where you control the access permissions.

 

If you want to safely inspect a suspect VI before running it, follow these steps:

  1. Create a blank project
  2. Add the suspect VI to the project as a sub-VI
  3. Inspect the sub-VI's code