security within virtualbox
 

Right now my main system is Ubuntu Linux. However, for another computer that sadly must run windows, I bought Norton Internet Security. It allows me to freely and legally install it on 3 computers. However, it's my only windows computer.

Here's my question. I run windows 7 in VirtualBox. Would there be any point installing Norton on the Windows 7 virtual machine? I know how much a program like that slows down your computer, one of the many reasons I switched to linux. If I use the internet in my virtual machine, would the security flaws in windows allows someone to acess only the VM, or would it potentially allow them access to my linux system? (It would be ironic if windows was the single security flaw in my linux system.)

They would gain access to the Windows box theoretically, though perhaps not in practice, perhaps have a look at how virtual NICs get online

There could be other reasons you might not want even your virtualbox machine infected.
(1) Recently there was a security patch for vmware because there was a hole allowing code to be run on the host. There could be more such problems in the future.
(2) You don't want to become someone's 'bot spamming and possibly performing illegal activities.
(3) You might forget and use your windows box for some more sensitive activities.
(4) Your VM might have network access to your host, allowing infections to get to your host. (though it'd have to be cross-platform)
(5) there's probably other reasons that come to mind...

I'd recommend something other than Norton though. I used to use it but Norton has become very intrusive and slow. I don't want to plug any particular product though.

You could solve *some* of these problems by making a snapshot and always restoring to snapshot.

Yeah, I try to use snapshots, and I barely ever use the VM, but I will probablly use norton, just because it's free and I don't really want to have to pay for another antivirus software.,