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Identifying and Mitigating Emerging Threats in VMware Security

Server virtualization is becoming all the rage in many data centers as enterprises seek greater efficiency and cost savings by consolidating their hardware. Unfortunately, some of these enterprises have overlooked the security implications of virtualizing their environments -- but hackers and security researchers haven't.. At ShmooConearlier this month, security pros had a chance to get an up-close-and-personal look at one of the newest, previously unreleased exploits for the virtualized server environment. While not quite a zero-day vulnerability (the researchers worked directly with VMware before releasing details), the directory traversal exploit against VMware Server and ESX/ESXi is still catching virtual server admins with their pants on the ground. Justin Morehouse and Tony Flick's presentation, "Stealing Guests...theVMware Way," detailed the attack and included an easy-to-use tool that would allow an unauthenticated attacker to download any guest virtual machine from an affected system. Even without the tool, the attack was simple enough to carry out with a Web browser -- throw in a quick search with Shodan, and well, you know what they say about "idle hands." Still feeling insecure about choosing to virtualize your servers? You're not alone. According to the CDW's "Server Virtualization Life Cycle Report: Medium and Large Businesses," 17 percent of IT executives said their most significant barrier to server virtualization was concern about security. Concerns such as these may be one reason why only 37 percent of data and application have been virtualized. But virtualization efforts are ramping up quickly, according to a Gartner study that predicts approximately 50 percent of x86 architecture server workloads will be virtualized by the end of 2012. The added complexity of virtualization could decrease visibility into network traffic and the data flowing in and out of sensitive servers; it could also create questions as to whether one virtual system compromise will affect other virtual guestsystems. Ultimately, the question is: How do you know your data is secure in your virtual environment? The link for this article located at Dark Reading is no longer available. . Explore the newest vulnerabilities in cloud infrastructures and the strategies to protect against evolving cyber risks.. Server Security, Virtualization Risks, Cybersecurity Tools. . LinuxSecurity.com Team

Feb 15, 2010 • LinuxSecurity.com Team Server Security