Author : Naga Sesha Venkata Pavan Kumar Kavuluru 1
Date of Publication :25th September 2023
Abstract: Cloud computing is the most trending topic in today's IT world, and one of its key technologies is virtualization. Virtualization enables us to create useful environments from abstract resources by separating functions from the underlying hardware. However, as cloud computing usage has increased, so as the threats to its various security layers, including the virtualization layer. Attackers have increasingly targeted this layer with malicious activity, with the potential for compromising VM infrastructures leading to access to other VMs on the same system and even the host. In this paper, we have highlighted the different types of threats that can compromise the virtualization layer. The emerging VM escape attack is particularly concerning among the several types of attacks that can occur in the virtualization layer [1]. If attackers gain control of the Virtual Machine Monitor (VMM), they will have full control of all VMs and accessed data, as well as the underlying physical system and hosted applications. In this paper, we have analyzed the use of the Bell-LaPadula model as a base method for implementing the PVEM model as a mitigation strategy. Furthermore, we also cited the bounds-check bypass attack, one of the techniques for VM escape. With the current analysis, it seems that there are still potential areas to address this issue and we aim to do further research in this area.
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