SubVirt: Implementing malware with virtual machines
SP '06 Proceedings of the 2006 IEEE Symposium on Security and Privacy
Compatibility is not transparency: VMM detection myths and realities
HOTOS'07 Proceedings of the 11th USENIX workshop on Hot topics in operating systems
Virtualization: Issues, security threats, and solutions
ACM Computing Surveys (CSUR)
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Virtualisation has been touted as a security tool. If you virtualise a server operating system and only run one application in it, then any application that suffers from a security flaw in that operating system can't theoretically be used to infect other applications running in other operating systems. That sounds reasonable, but what happens if attackers use virtualisation as an attack tool? Researchers have already posited the idea of using hardware assisted virtualisation to insert malware underneath an operating system that doesn't realise it has been compromised. How likely is this to happen, and what can be done to detect or prevent it? Kevin Skapinetz of IBM Internet Security Systems explores the issue. Virtualisation is quickly becoming a favourite component of modern computing environments. With a proven ability to reduce costs and improve resource efficiency, it's no wonder that IT professionals have rapidly embraced this technology with open arms. Unfortunately, the same characteristics that allow virtualisation to solve many complex IT problems also makes it a potential tool for building potent new malware.