[XCSSA] Xen and security

xcssa@xcssa.org xcssa@xcssa.org
Tue, 9 Jan 2007 21:03:13 -0600


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Background:

Xen works by requiring that the guest OS be slightly re-written
to avoid unsafe operations (e.g. updating page table entries) by
using a new method (e.g. a hypervisor call to Xen).

I've been reading this:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/research/srg/netos/papers/2003-xensosp.pdf

My question is, does this mean that a guest OS can violate the
security model if it chooses to be malicious?  I'm sort of thinking
that guest OS code running at ring > 0 might generate an exception and
be terminated or hose itself, but wouldn't be able to affect any other
guest OSes or the host.  Can anyone think of a way that it could?
--=20
``Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.''
-- Albert Einstein -><- <URL:http://www.subspacefield.org/~travis/>

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