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Chapter 1. Introduction
1.1. Virtualized and Non-Virtualized Environments
A virtualized environment presents opportunities for both the discovery of new attack vectors and the refinement of existing exploits that may not previously have presented value to an attacker. It is therefore important to take steps to ensure the security of both the physical hosts and the guests running on them when creating and maintaining virtual machines.
Non-Virtualized Environment
In a non-virtualized environment, hosts are separated from each other physically and each host has a self-contained environment, consisting of services such as a web server, or a DNS server. These services communicate directly to their own user space, host kernel and physical host, offering their services directly to the network. The following image represents a non-virtualized environment:
Figure 1.1. Non-Virtualized Environment
Virtualized Environment
In a virtualized environment, several operating systems can be housed (as "guests") within a single host kernel and physical host. The following image represents a virtualized environment:
Figure 1.2. Virtualized Environment
When services are not virtualized, machines are physically separated. Any exploit is therefore usually contained to the affected machine, with the obvious exception of network attacks. When services are grouped together in a virtualized environment, extra vulnerabilities emerge in the system. If there is a security flaw in the hypervisor that can be exploited by a guest instance, this guest may be able to not only attack the host, but also other guests running on that host. This is not theoretical; attacks already exist on hypervisors. These attacks can extend beyond the guest instance and could expose other guests to attack.
