Virtualisation security covers hypervisors, virtual machines, and isolated workloads, where flaws or misconfiguration can expose systems and data.
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Background for this topic.
Virtualisation uses software to divide or simulate computing resources so multiple isolated virtual machines (VMs) can share a physical host. Each VM can run its own operating system and applications; a hypervisor controls access to the host’s processors, memory, storage and devices. The term can also include virtual networks and storage, while containers provide a related but less isolated form of workload virtualisation.
Security depends on the hypervisor and its management plane being securely configured, patched and access-controlled. A hypervisor vulnerability or misconfiguration can expose data across VMs, and a VM escape can allow code running in one guest to reach the host or other guests. Virtual machine images, templates and snapshots may retain credentials or sensitive data and therefore require inventory, integrity checks, encryption and controlled retention. Network segmentation between virtual workloads should be enforced through explicit policies rather than assumed from virtual separation. These controls also support reliable investigation and recovery by preserving trustworthy images and records of administrative changes.
New ESXiArgs ransomware attacks are now encrypting more extensive amounts of data, making it much harder, if not impossible, to recover encrypted VMware ESXi virtual machines. [...]
The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) has released a script to recover VMware ESXi servers encrypted by the recent widespread ESXiArgs ransomware attacks. [...]
VMware warned customers today to install the latest security updates and disable the OpenSLP service targeted in a large-scale campaign of ransomware attacks against Internet-exposed and vulnerable ESXi servers. [...]
Royal Ransomware is the latest ransomware operation to add support for encrypting Linux devices to its most recent malware variants, specifically targeting VMware ESXi virtual machines. [...]