VBoxManage/GUI does not detect VMs started by another user

[DavidN]

If a VM is started by the Windows Local System account (for example, if started by "VBoxVMService"), then neither VBoxManage nor the GUI when executed by a regular user or administrator will show the VM as running. The status of a VM should be machine global and visible to all users.

[Frank Mehnert]

Well, perhaps under some circumstances but not always. I can imagine that the GUI should show the status of all VMs if the GUI is started as Administrator, but not if started as regular user.

[DavidN]

Anyone who has permissions to see a VM in their GUI or list vms should have permissions to see it's running status. I can find out if it's running anyway by trying to start it or modify it and waiting for E_FAIL, so why not just tell me in the first place? If you want to hide the running status of a VM you should hide the entire VM. The GUI prevents you from opening settings on a VM it knows is running, but doesn't prevent you from opening settings on a machine that it doesn't know is running. A disaster waiting to happen?

[Frank Mehnert]

I don't want to hide anything but one user is not allowed to access any VM state of any other user, not even read-only. The VBox service is user-local and we don't intend to change this, for instance for security reasons.

[DavidN]

That makes sense. I don't think another user should be able to see my VMs at all, including their running state. But if another user, super user, or service account has started my VMs, I should be able to see that.