Skip to main content

Measuring REAL security in a Virtual Machine

The Center for Internet Security, a non-profit organization that specifies best security practices for Windows and other data center software, will be floating an early version of a "hardened" set of security guidelines for VMware's ESX Server. The center calls its guides benchmarks. They are written with a focus on security performance, not speed, as with other benchmark measures.

The guide was drafted with input from security experts, VMware, Configuresoft, and major virtualization users, said Dave Shackleford, VP of the center, in an interview.

Gartner analyst Neil MacDonald predicts that by 2009, 60% of production virtual machines will be less secure than their physical counterparts. That's because the rapid implementation of virtual machines breaks down some of the old security disciplines in the data center; the separation of duties between server administrators and security administrators is less distinct than with physical servers.

VMware's Virtual Center offers the option of VMotion, or moving a running virtual machine from one physical server to another. After the move, who has primary responsibility for that VM's security?

Many companies can't afford to have their virtual machine hypervisors, which are in direct contact with many system resources, more exposed than their physical machines to intruders or threat of malware.


Read on...

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Security: VMware Workstation 6 vulnerability

vulnerable software: VMware Workstation 6.0 for Windows, possible some other VMware products as well type of vulnerability: DoS, potential privilege escalation I found a vulnerability in VMware Workstation 6.0 which allows an unprivileged user in the host OS to crash the system and potentially run arbitrary code with kernel privileges. The issue is in the vmstor-60 driver, which is supposed to mount VMware images within the host OS. When sending the IOCTL code FsSetVoleInformation with subcode FsSetFileInformation with a large buffer and underreporting its size to at max 1024 bytes, it will underrun and potentially execute arbitrary code. Security focus

Virtualization: GlassHouse hopes to cash in with its IPO!

GlassHouse Technologies Inc. on Tuesday registered to raise as much as $100 million in an initial public offering that, despite the company's financial losses, could prove a hit with investors drawn to its focus on "virtualization" technology. The Framingham, Mass., company offers consulting services for companies that use virtualization software to improve the performance of corporate servers and cut costs in their data centers. GlassHouse also provides Internet-based data storage. "Software-as-a-service," or SaaS, companies and vendors of virtualization products have proved popular among investors in recent years as corporate customers seek alternatives to conventional packaged software. GlassHouse, with roots in both sectors, will test the strength of that interest, said Peter Falvey, managing director with Boston investment bank Revolution Partners. "It will be a bit of a bell weather," he says. "It's not as though it's the 15th SaaS m...