Hypervisor Security and Vulnerabilities

7.

Incident Response and Forensics in Virtualized Environments

7.1.

Challenges in Virtualized Incident Response

7.1.1.

Volatility of Virtual Machine State

7.1.1.1.

Ephemeral Memory and Storage

7.1.1.2.

Impact of VM Snapshots and Cloning

7.1.2.

Abstraction from Physical Hardware

7.1.2.1.

Difficulty in Mapping Virtual to Physical Resources

7.1.2.2.

Hypervisor Layer Obfuscation

7.1.3.

Log Correlation Complexity

7.1.3.1.

Multiple Log Sources

7.1.3.2.

Time Synchronization Issues

7.2.

Detection and Analysis

7.2.1.

Identifying Anomalous Hypervisor Behavior

7.2.1.1.

Behavioral Baselines

7.2.1.2.

Anomaly Detection Techniques

7.2.2.

Detecting VM Escape and Inter-VM Attacks

7.2.2.1.

Indicators of Compromise

7.2.2.2.

Cross-VM Activity Monitoring

7.2.3.

Forensic Analysis of VM Snapshots

7.2.3.1.

Snapshot Acquisition Procedures

7.2.3.2.

Analysis of VM State and Artifacts

7.3.

Data Acquisition

7.3.1.

Acquiring VM Memory Dumps

7.3.1.1.

Memory Dump Tools and Techniques

7.3.1.2.

Ensuring Data Integrity

7.3.2.

Capturing Virtual Disk Images

7.3.2.1.

Disk Imaging Tools

7.3.2.2.

Chain of Custody Considerations

7.3.3.

Preserving Hypervisor Logs and State

7.3.3.1.

Log Export and Archival

7.3.3.2.

State Preservation Best Practices

7.4.

Containment and Eradication

7.4.1.

Isolating Compromised VMs

7.4.1.1.

Network Quarantine

7.4.1.2.

Resource Restriction

7.4.2.

Live Migration of Unaffected VMs

7.4.2.1.

Migration Planning during Incidents

7.4.2.2.

Ensuring Security during Migration

7.4.3.

Reverting to Secure Snapshots

7.4.3.1.

Snapshot Management Policies

7.4.3.2.

Post-Incident Validation

7.4.4.

Rebuilding the Host and Hypervisor

7.4.4.1.

Secure Reinstallation Procedures

7.4.4.2.

Restoration from Trusted Backups

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6. Advanced Hypervisor Security Architectures

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1. Introduction to Virtualization and Hypervisor Technology