IT Security Stack Exchange
IT Security Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [virtualization]

Virtualization is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as an operating system, a server, a storage device or network resources.

Virtualization is the creation of a virtual (rather than actual) version of something, such as an operating system, a server, a storage device or network resources.

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Why can hardware assisted virtualization be a security issue?

Avast antivirus has an option for disabling "Enable hardware-assisted virtualization". If it's enabled, how is it a security issue?
hyperscience
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Can a hypervisor rootkit enable hardware-assisted virtualization when it has been disabled by the BIOS?

I was recently reading An Introduction to Hardware-Assisted Virtual Machine (HVM) Rootkits (PDF), and it wasn't entirely clear about the conditions under which the hypervisor rootkit can start virtualization. If virtualization is enabled then…
Matthew Read
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What is Virtual Machine Introspection?

I have seen it presented as a special security technique but it seems like it basically means automated security monitoring of your virtual environment. Is that the basic idea?
bernie2436
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Is it safe to run untrusted application inside a Virtual Machine

I have some untrusted software. I plan to run them on a guest Windows 7 on my host Windows 8 OS using Oracle VirtualBox. In the worst case, will only my guest OS be affected? Can the hacker access information from my main OS? I don't expect the…
user3584
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How hard is it to distinguish between remote access to a virtual machine vs a piece of hardware?

Let's say I have full access to a remote machine (specifically, root on a Linux). What is the best method to check whether this is a real piece of hardware or a virtual machine? Most of the methods that I have seen rely on looking at various…
jarm
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VM hypervisior that doesn't leak that it's a VM to the guest?

I need a VM Hypervisor that will not leak to the guest that its in a VM. The guest should believe its on a full physical machine. Apparently VirtualBox fails at this, along with Virtual PC and VMWare. Before I dive into monsters like Xen, is there…
TheLQ
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Daily Virtual Machines workflow: Use for sensitive activities?

Daily Virtual Machines workflow: Use for sensitive activities? Every day I'm playing with fire regarding my computer security, in one chrome profile I have my business side, logged into social media with tons of followers, logged into bank accounts,…
MrTom
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VMware server 4.1 -how can I prevent VMs being exposed to each other through VMCI?

I have realized there are issues such as virtual machines being exposed to other VMs within the same system when they're connected to the VMCI socket interface. How do we prevent this ?
Andreas Pluto
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Security issues in QEMU

My intention is to add support in QEMU for a new machine/platform. I just started this project, so I can't say more details about it because I don't know them. My question is related about the possible security issues that could occur. What are the…
Sam Stewart
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Instrumentation vs virtual machine introspection

I cannot differentiate between Instrumentation and Virtual machine introspection. Since the goal of Virtual Machine introspection is to examine the properties of a target through virtual machine monitor then what is the purpose and use of…
Ali Ahmad
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Security advanatages to running a webapp inside a container, which is ALSO inside a vm?

I am doing some security consulting for a client who intends on deploying a Ruby on Rails web application. I am trying to ascertain a couple of different things... Is it any more secure to run an application inside a container which is also inside…
Chev_603
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VirtualBox 3D acceleration security risk

I have VirtualBox running a windows 7 VM on it and the performance is really choppy, likely because of the 3D acceleration. However I read through VirtualBox's security page, and it states: "Enabling 3D graphics via the Guest Additions exposes the…
Jurgen
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Is there a security benefit to be found in using a virtual machine if the host is infected?

What I have found out so far is that keyloggers, for example, can still capture what you type, even within the virtual machine. I could not, however, find much information regarding other effects of an infection of the host system on the virtual…
CBeltz
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Why must a virtual image be secured

Virtual machines and their disk images are simply files residing somewhere. So I supposed this means that, for example, a stopped VM is potentially accessible on a file system. What could an attacker learn from the virtual image that might undermine…
Beginner
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Would it be more secure to have untrusted applications execute on a type 1 or a type 2 hypervisor?

My usual workflow is to run potentially malicious applications/websites (untrusted) inside of a virtualbox VM. Lately I have been playing with hyper-v. From what I gather, critical windows components are running in a VM (with Defender System Guard)…
tristan
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