Virtualisation security covers hypervisors, virtual machines, and isolated workloads, where flaws or misconfiguration can expose systems and data.
Search across headline titles and summaries.
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.
The Kraken ransomware, which targets Windows, Linux/VMware ESXi systems, is testing machines to check how fast it can encrypt data without overloading them. [...]
Three newly disclosed vulnerabilities in the runC container runtime used in Docker and Kubernetes could be exploited to bypass isolation restrictions and get access to the host system. [...]