Changeset 38556 in vbox
- Timestamp:
- Aug 29, 2011 12:03:07 PM (13 years ago)
- File:
-
- 1 edited
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trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Security.xml (modified) (7 diffs)
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trunk/doc/manual/en_US/user_Security.xml
r38507 r38556 35 35 <para> 36 36 Use proper means, for instance a firewall, to protect your computer 37 and your guest(s) from accesses from the outside. 38 </para> 39 <para> 40 The default networking mode for VMs is NAT which means that 41 the VM acts like a computer behind a router, see 42 <xref linkend="network_nat"/>. If bridged networking is used, 43 the VM acts like a computer inside the same network as the host, 44 see <xref linkend="network_bridged"/>. In this case, a firewall 45 might be necessary to protect other computers on the subnet from 46 a potential malicious guest. In some cases it is worth to consider 47 adding a forwarding rule for a specific port in NAT mode instead 48 of using bridged networking. 49 </para> 50 <para> 51 Sometimes a VM doesn't need to be connected to the public network 52 at all. Internal networking (see <xref linkend="network_internal"/>) 53 or host-only networking (see <xref linkend="network_hostonly"/>) 54 are often sufficient to connect VMs among each other or to connect 55 VMs only with the host but not with the public network. 37 and your guest(s) from accesses from the outside. Choosing the proper 38 networking mode for VMs helps to separate host networking from the 39 guest and vice versa. 56 40 </para> 57 41 </glossdef> … … 63 47 <para> 64 48 The principle of least privilege states that users should be given the 65 least amount of privilege to perform their jobs. We strongly discourage 66 from executing VirtualBox with system privileges. 49 least amount of privilege to perform their jobs. Execute VirtualBox 50 always as regular user. We strongly discourage from executing 51 VirtualBox with system privileges. 67 52 </para> 68 53 </glossdef> … … 104 89 <title>Installation Overview</title> 105 90 <para> 91 The VirtualBox base package should be downloaded only from a trusted source, 92 for instance the official website 93 <ulink url="http://www.virtualbox.org">http://www.virtualbox.org</ulink>. 94 The integrity of the package should be verified with the provided SHA256 95 checksum which can be found on the official website. 96 </para> 97 <para> 106 98 General VirtualBox installation instructions for the supported hosts can 107 be found in <xref linkend="installation"/>. On certain hosts it is possible 108 to omit certain VirtualBox components from installing but the general case 109 is to install the complete VirtualBox package. The installation must be 110 done with system privileges. 99 be found in <xref linkend="installation"/>. On some hosts it is possible 100 to disable certain VirtuallBox components during the installation but the 101 regular case is to install the complete VirtualBox package. The installation 102 must be done with system privileges. All VirtualBox binaries should be 103 executed as regular user and never as privileged user. 104 </para> 105 <para> 106 The Oracle VM VirtualBox extension pack provides additional features 107 and must be downloaded and installed separately, see 108 <xref linkend="intro-installing"/>. Like the for base package, the SHA256 109 checksum of the extension pack should be verified. As the installation 110 requires system privileges, the VirtualBox GUI will ask for the system 111 password during the installation of the extension pack. 111 112 </para> 112 113 </sect2> … … 116 117 <para> 117 118 Normally there is no post installation configuration of VirtualBox components 118 required. However, on Solaris and Linux hosts it is requiredto configure119 required. However, on Solaris and Linux hosts it is necessary to configure 119 120 the proper permissions for users executing VMs which should be able to 120 access certain host resources. Linux users must be member of the 121 <emphasis>vboxusers</emphasis> group to pass USB devices to a guest. If a 122 serial interface should be accessed from a VM, the proper permissions must 123 be granted to the user as well. The same applies to raw partitions which 124 should be accessible for a VM. 121 access certain host resources. For instance, Linux users must be member of 122 the <emphasis>vboxusers</emphasis> group to be able to pass USB devices to a 123 guest. If a serial host interface should be accessed from a VM, the proper 124 permissions must be granted to the user to be able to access that device. 125 The same applies to other resources like raw partitions, DVD/CD drives 126 and sound devices. 125 127 </para> 126 128 </sect2> … … 135 137 <para> 136 138 One property of virtual machine monitors (VMMs) like VirtualBox is to encapsulate 137 a guest by executing it in a dedicated environment, a virtual machine,139 a guest by executing it in a protected environment, a virtual machine, 138 140 running as a user process on the host operating system. The guest cannot 139 141 communicate directly with the hardware or other computers but only through 140 142 the VMM. The VMM provides emulated physical resources and devices to the 141 guest which are used by the guest operating system to perform the required 142 tasks. The VM settings control the amount of resources provided to the guest 143 (for example the amount of guest RAM or the number of guest processors, (see 144 <xref linkend="generalsettings"/>) and the selection of features enabled 145 for a specific VM process (for example remote control, see 146 <xref linkend="vrde"/>). 143 guest which are accessed by the guest operating system to perform the required 144 tasks. The VM settings control the resources provided to the guest, for example 145 the amount of guest memory or the number of guest processors, (see 146 <xref linkend="generalsettings"/>) and the enabled features for that guest 147 (for example remote control, certain screen settings and others). 147 148 </para> 148 149 </sect2> 149 150 <!-- 151 <sect2> 152 <title>Configuring and Using Authentication</title> 153 </sect2> 154 155 <sect2> 156 <title>Configuring and Using Access Control</title> 157 </sect2> 158 159 <sect2> 160 <title>Configuring and Using Security Audit</title> 161 </sect2> 162 163 <sect2> 164 <title>Congiguring and Using Other Security Features</title> 165 </sect2> 166 --> 167 168 </sect1> 169 170 <!-- 171 <sect1> 172 <title>Security Considerations for Developers</title> 173 </sect1> 174 --> 175 176 <sect1> 177 <title>Potentially insecure operations</title> 178 179 <para>The following features of VirtualBox can present security 180 problems:<itemizedlist> 181 <listitem> 182 <para>Enabling 3D graphics via the Guest Additions exposes the host 183 to additional security risks; see <xref 184 linkend="guestadd-3d" />.</para> 185 </listitem> 186 187 <listitem> 188 <para>When teleporting a machine, the data stream through which the 189 machine's memory contents are transferred from one host to another 190 is not encrypted. A third party with access to the network through 191 which the data is transferred could therefore intercept that 192 data.</para> 193 </listitem> 194 195 <listitem> 196 <para>When using the VirtualBox web service to control a VirtualBox 197 host remotely, connections to the web service (through which the API 198 calls are transferred via SOAP XML) are not encrypted, but use plain 199 HTTP. This is a potential security risk! For details about the web 200 service, please see <xref linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />.</para> 201 </listitem> 202 203 <listitem> 204 <para>All traffic sent over an UDP Tunnel network attachment is not 205 encrypted. You can either encrypt it on the host network level (with 206 IPsec), or use encrypted protocols in the guest network (such as 207 SSH). The security properties are similar to bridged Ethernet.</para> 208 </listitem> 209 </itemizedlist></para> 210 </sect1> 211 212 <sect1> 213 <title>Authentication</title> 214 215 <para>The following components of VirtualBox can use passwords for 216 authentication:<itemizedlist> 217 <listitem> 218 <para>When using the VirtualBox extension pack provided by Oracle 150 151 <sect2> 152 <title>Secure Configuration of Virtual Machines</title> 153 <para> 154 Several aspects of a virtual machine configuration are subject to security 155 considerations.</para> 156 157 <sect3> 158 <title>Networking</title> 159 <para> 160 The default networking mode for VMs is NAT which means that 161 the VM acts like a computer behind a router, see 162 <xref linkend="network_nat"/>. The guest is part of a private 163 subnet belonging to this VM and the guest IP is not visible 164 from the outside. This networking mode works without 165 any additional setup and is sufficient for many purposes. 166 </para> 167 <para> 168 If bridged networking is used, the VM acts like a computer inside 169 the same networking as the host, see <xref linkend="network_bridged"/>. 170 In this case, the guest has the same network access as the host and 171 a firewall might be necessary to protect other computers on the 172 subnet from a potential malicious guest as well as to protect the 173 guest from a direct access from other computers. In some cases it is 174 worth considering using a forwarding rule for a specific port in NAT 175 mode instead of using bridged networking. 176 </para> 177 <para> 178 Some setups don't require a VM to be connected to the public network 179 at all. Internal networking (see <xref linkend="network_internal"/>) 180 or host-only networking (see <xref linkend="network_hostonly"/>) 181 are often sufficient to connect VMs among each other or to connect 182 VMs only with the host but not with the public network. 183 </para> 184 </sect3> 185 186 <sect3> 187 <title>VRDP remote desktop authentication</title> 188 <para>When using the VirtualBox extension pack provided by Oracle 219 189 for VRDP remote desktop support, you can optionally use various 220 190 methods to configure RDP authentication. The "null" method is 221 191 very insecure and should be avoided in a public network. 222 192 See <xref linkend="vbox-auth" /> for details.</para> 223 </listitem> 193 </sect3> 194 195 <sect3> 196 <title>Clipboard</title> 197 <para> 198 The shared clipboard allows to share data between the host and 199 the guest. Enabling the clipboard in "Bidirectional" mode allows 200 the guest to read and write the host clipboard. The "Host to guest" 201 mode and the "Guest to host" mode limit the access to one 202 direction. If the guest is able to access the host clipboard it 203 could also access sensitive data from the host which are shared over 204 the clipboard. 205 </para> 206 </sect3> 207 208 <sect3> 209 <title>3D graphics acceleration</title> 210 <para>Enabling 3D graphics via the Guest Additions exposes the host 211 to additional security risks; see <xref 212 linkend="guestadd-3d" />.</para> 213 </sect3> 214 215 <sect3> 216 <title>CD/DVD passthrough</title> 217 <para>Enabling CD/DVD passthrough allows the guest to perform advanced 218 operations on the CD/DVD drive, see <xref linkend="storage-cds"/>. 219 This could induce a security risk as a guest could overwrite data 220 on a CD/DVD medium. 221 </para> 222 </sect3> 223 224 <sect3> 225 <title>USB passthrough</title> 226 <para> 227 Passing USB devices to the guest provides the guest full access 228 to these devices, see <xref linkend="settings-usb"/>. For instance, 229 in addition to reading and writing the content of the partitions 230 of an external USB disk the guest will be also able to read and 231 write the partition table and hardware data of that disk. 232 </para> 233 </sect3> 234 235 </sect2> 236 237 <sect2> 238 <title>Configuring and Using Authentication</title> 239 240 <para>The following components of VirtualBox can use passwords for 241 authentication:<itemizedlist> 224 242 225 243 <listitem> … … 252 270 </listitem> 253 271 </itemizedlist></para> 254 </sect1> 255 256 <sect1> 257 <title>Encryption</title> 258 259 <para>The following components of VirtualBox use encryption to protect 260 sensitive data:<itemizedlist> 272 </sect2> 273 274 <!-- 275 <sect2> 276 <title>Configuring and Using Access Control</title> 277 </sect2> 278 279 <sect2> 280 <title>Configuring and Using Security Audit</title> 281 </sect2> 282 283 <sect2> 284 <title>Congiguring and Using Other Security Features</title> 285 </sect2> 286 --> 287 288 <sect2> 289 <title>Potentially insecure operations</title> 290 291 <para>The following features of VirtualBox can present security 292 problems:<itemizedlist> 293 <listitem> 294 <para>Enabling 3D graphics via the Guest Additions exposes the host 295 to additional security risks; see <xref 296 linkend="guestadd-3d" />.</para> 297 </listitem> 298 299 <listitem> 300 <para>When teleporting a machine, the data stream through which the 301 machine's memory contents are transferred from one host to another 302 is not encrypted. A third party with access to the network through 303 which the data is transferred could therefore intercept that 304 data.</para> 305 </listitem> 306 307 <listitem> 308 <para>When using the VirtualBox web service to control a VirtualBox 309 host remotely, connections to the web service (through which the API 310 calls are transferred via SOAP XML) are not encrypted, but use plain 311 HTTP. This is a potential security risk! For details about the web 312 service, please see <xref linkend="VirtualBoxAPI" />.</para> 313 </listitem> 314 315 <listitem> 316 <para>All traffic sent over an UDP Tunnel network attachment is not 317 encrypted. You can either encrypt it on the host network level (with 318 IPsec), or use encrypted protocols in the guest network (such as 319 SSH). The security properties are similar to bridged Ethernet.</para> 320 </listitem> 321 </itemizedlist></para> 322 </sect2> 323 324 <sect2> 325 <title>Encryption</title> 326 327 <para>The following components of VirtualBox use encryption to protect 328 sensitive data:<itemizedlist> 261 329 <listitem> 262 330 <para>When using the VirtualBox extension pack provided by Oracle … … 268 336 </listitem> 269 337 </itemizedlist></para> 338 </sect2> 270 339 </sect1> 340 341 <!-- 342 <sect1> 343 <title>Security Considerations for Developers</title> 344 </sect1> 345 --> 346 271 347 </chapter>
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