Managing Access in a Virtualized Environment

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Managing Access
in a Virtualized
Environment
October 2006Table of ContentsExecutive Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Virtualization Technology Overview. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3Virtualization Security Risks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Protecting the Virtual Environment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5eTrust® Access Control Virtualization Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
2There are several common approaches to virtualization:Executive Summary Organizations are adopting virtualization technology . Application-Based Virtualization. A virtualizationto reduce total cost of ownership and improve quality application is hosted on top of the hosting operatingof service of IT systems. This strategy provides the system such as Windows, UNIX or Linux. Thisoperational foundation to consolidate critical services virtualization application then emulates each VM whichand sensitive data that were once scattered amongst contains its own guest operating system and relateddistributed system deployments. From a security applications. Examples of this are VMware Server orstandpoint, not only are the security issues found on Microsoft Virtual Server.networked systems applicable to virtual machines, but the virtualization platform and guest workstationrelationship introduces a new breed of security threats. Virtual Machine Virtual MachineA single compromise of the hosting platform puts theentire virtual data center at risk. Application App AppGuest OS Guest OSTo reduce virtualization security risks, an independent ApplicationsTrust Access Control Trust Access Controlaccess enforcement technology must be employed in VMM VMMconjunction with system security measures. Some of thevulnerabilities that were traditionally controlled by the Virtualization Applicationpresence of physical security must now be mitigated Hosting Operating Systemthrough the implementation of granular access controls on the virtualization platform. Trust Access Control
An effective solution must ensure that only authorized Hardware Resourcesusers perform authorized operations on the hostingsystem. This reduces the risk due to over-privilegedaccounts or external intrusions which may compromisethe gateway to guest images. Machine-to-machine Figure 1. Application-Based Virtualization.protection through virtual isolation should besupplemented by access enforcement amongst them. . Operating System-Based Virtualization. Virtualization isCentralized management of security policies is critical to enabled by the hosting operating system which supportsminimizing deployment and administrative costs. Finally, multiple isolated, virtualized guest operating systemall sensitive administrative activities on both the hosting instances on a single physical server, all sharing theoperating system and guest virtual machines must be same operating system kernel. An example of this is closely audited for compliance requirements as well as Sun Solaris 10 Containers (Zones).risk mitigation.
Virtualization Technology OverviewVirtualization technologies enable the execution ofmultiple operating system instances, or virtual machines(VMs), on the same physical piece of hardware. Each VM functions as if it is its own physical machine with a dedicated operating system and hosted applications. Trust Access ControlBetween the individual VMs and the hardware, a layercalled the virtual machine monitor (VMM) performshardware emulation and provides tools to manage resource allocation. Some virtualization platforms require Trust Access Controlan external host operating system; others are embeddeddirectly in the hardware. The layer within the virtualizationplatform that enables hardwa... [download for more]