Securing the Virtual Infrastructure in the IaaS Cloud Computing Model

....................................................................................................................................... II Acknowledgements ...................................................................................................................... IV Declaration ................................................................................................................................... V List of Publications ...................................................................................................................... VI List of Figures .............................................................................................................................. XI List of Tables .............................................................................................................................XIV Introduction ............................................................................................................ 1 Chapter 1 1.1 Research Background and Motivation ................................................................................1 Virtualization-Related Technical Problems ....................................................................2 1.1.1 Operating System Security-Related Technical Problems ...............................................4 1.1.2 1.2 Key Research Contributions ...............................................................................................6 1.3 Thesis Outline .....................................................................................................................8 The IaaS Security Problem ................................................................................... 11 Chapter 2 2.1 Cloud Computing .............................................................................................................11 2.2 The Virtualization Double-Edged Sword .........................................................................13 Virtualization Benefits .................................................................................................14 2.2.1 The Downside: Virtualization Security Risks ..............................................................17 2.2.2 Virtual Machine Security .............................................................................................18 2.2.3 2.3 Operating Systems and the “Pointer Problem” .................................................................24 2.4 Points-to Analysis .............................................................................................................27 2.5 Summary ..........................................................................................................................32 Literature Review ................................................................................................. 33 Chapter 3 3.