Pouring Cloud Virtualization Security Inside Out

TL;DR

This paper reviews virtualization security issues in cloud computing, focusing on VM attacks and countermeasures, providing a classification of threats and discussing detection and prevention techniques.

Contribution

It offers a comprehensive classification of VM threats in cloud environments and discusses various security measures and detection techniques.

Findings

Identification of key VM threats in cloud environments

Discussion of countermeasures like VM detection and introspection

Classification framework for virtualization security threats

Abstract

In this article, virtualization security concerns in the cloud computing domain are reviewed. The focus is toward virtual machine (VM) security where attacks and vulnerabilities such as VM escape, VM hopping, cross-VM side-channel, VM-based rootkits (VMBRs), VM mobility, and VM remote are mentioned and discussed according to their relevance in the clouds. For each attack we outline how they affect the security of cloud systems. Countermeasures and security measures to detect or prevent them through techniques such as VM detection, GuardHype, VM introspection, VM image scanning, etc. are also discussed. Through the surveyed work we present a classification of VM threats within the clouds. Finally, we include our observations and those of other researchers on this matter of cloud virtualization security.