TY - GEN
T1 - Flexible security configuration for virtual machines
AU - Rueda, Sandra
AU - Sreenivasan, Yogesh
AU - Jaeger, Trent
PY - 2008
Y1 - 2008
N2 - Virtualmachines are widely accepted as a promising basis for building secure systems. However, while virtual machines offer effective mechanisms to create isolated environments, mechanisms that offer controlled interaction among VMs are immature. Some VM systems include flexible policy models and some enable MLS enforcement, but the flexible use of policy to control VM interactions has not been developed. In this paper, we propose an architecture that enables administrators to configure virtual machines to satisfy prescribed security goals. We describe the design and implementation of such an architecture using SELinux, Xen and IPsec as the tools to express and enforce policies at the OS, VM and Network layers, respectively. We develop a web application using our architecture and show that we can configure application VMs in such a way that we can verify the enforcement of the security goals of those applications.
AB - Virtualmachines are widely accepted as a promising basis for building secure systems. However, while virtual machines offer effective mechanisms to create isolated environments, mechanisms that offer controlled interaction among VMs are immature. Some VM systems include flexible policy models and some enable MLS enforcement, but the flexible use of policy to control VM interactions has not been developed. In this paper, we propose an architecture that enables administrators to configure virtual machines to satisfy prescribed security goals. We describe the design and implementation of such an architecture using SELinux, Xen and IPsec as the tools to express and enforce policies at the OS, VM and Network layers, respectively. We develop a web application using our architecture and show that we can configure application VMs in such a way that we can verify the enforcement of the security goals of those applications.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=70349236163&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=70349236163&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1145/1456508.1456515
DO - 10.1145/1456508.1456515
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:70349236163
SN - 9781605583006
T3 - Proceedings of the ACM Conference on Computer and Communications Security
SP - 35
EP - 43
BT - Proceedings of the 2nd ACM Workshop on Computer Security Architectures, CSAW'08, Co-located with the 15th ACM Computer and Communications Security Conference, CCS'08
T2 - 2nd ACM Workshop on Computer Security Architectures, CSAW'08, Co-located with the 15th ACM Computer and Communications Security Conference, CCS'08
Y2 - 27 October 2008 through 31 October 2008
ER -