Virtualization-based technologies have become ubiquitous in computing. While they provide an easy-to-implement platform for scalable, high-availability services, they also introduce new security issues. Traditionally, discussions on security vulnerabilities in server platforms have been focused on stand-alone (i.e., non-virtualized) environments. For cloud and virtualized platforms, the discussion focuses on the shared usage of resources and the lack of control over the infrastructure. However, the impact virtualization technologies can have on exploit mitigation mechanisms of host machines is often neglected. Therefore, this survey discusses the following issues: first, the security issues and challenges that are introduced by the migration from stand-alone solutions to virtualized environments—special attention is given to the Virtual Machine Monitor, since it is a core component in a virtualized solution; second, the impact (sometimes negative) that these new technologies have on existing security strategies for hosts; third, how virtualization technologies can be leveraged to provide new security mechanisms not previously available.; and, finally, how virtualization technologies can be used for malicious purposes.

中文翻译：

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虚拟化技术的安全问题和挑战

基于虚拟化的技术已经在计算中无处不在。虽然它们为可扩展的高可用性服务提供了易于实施的平台，但它们也引入了新的安全问题。传统上，关于服务器平台安全漏洞的讨论一直集中在独立（即非虚拟化）环境上。对于云和虚拟化平台，讨论的重点是资源的共享使用和对基础设施缺乏控制。然而，虚拟化技术对主机漏洞利用缓解机制的影响往往被忽视。因此，本次调查讨论以下问题：第一，从独立解决方案迁移到虚拟化环境带来的安全问题和挑战——特别关注虚拟机监视器，因为它是虚拟化解决方案的核心组件；其次，这些新技术对现有主机安全策略的影响（有时是负面的）；第三，如何利用虚拟化技术提供以前不可用的新安全机制。最后，虚拟化技术如何被用于恶意目的。