Chapter 3. Understanding VMware vSphere™ and Virtual Infrastructure Security

Now that you understand the threats to the virtual environment, we’ll discuss the vmkernel. The vmkernel is the guts of the VMware Virtual Infrastructure or Virtual Datacenter OS (VDC-OS); it’s what makes it tick. It has another name as well; the vmkernel is the hypervisor that sits between the hardware and virtual machines. Several hypervisors may be in use within the virtual infrastructure, however. Although similar, they are nonetheless different. However, what it boils down to is that if the hypervisor is insecure, so is the rest of the environment. If the hardware below the hypervisor has insecurities, so does the vmkernel and hence the virtual machines.

Hypervisor ...

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