Security Evaluation of the VMware Virtual Machine

Security Evaluation of the VMware Virtual Machine

Table of Contents
Overview...............................................................................................................................................3
Investigation of the Security System.....................................................................................................3
Existing Methods...............................................................................................................................5
Tools Used.........................................................................................................................................7
Techniques Applied.........................................................................................................................10
Results.................................................................................................................................................11
Proposal to secure system...................................................................................................................15
Security Issues.................................................................................................................................16
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................16
References...........................................................................................................................................17

Overview
This report highlights the security evaluation of the virtual environment within the VMware Player.
As WidgetsInc contracted to Benny Vendergast for web store development, Benny Vandergast
provided a virtual machine for the purpose of the testing. WidgetsInc wanted to test the
environment for the security. Thus, the security evaluation process is involved in the study to
determine the security of the virtual machine in the VMware. There are numerous steps involved in
the analysis and security evaluation. Various issues are figured out in the process. The security audit
protocols for the provided scenario are well explain within the VMware player for the virtual
machine. The virtual machine is similar to the computer system that operates as virtual host for the
users that perform all the operations within the virtual environment. The virtual system works better
as compared to other system as they are available in virtual environment. No risks are present in
accessing virtual system with guest operating system. However, there requires assessment of
security in the virtual environment. Without proper security measures, the virtual machine have the
chance to get affected easily. The machine in the virtual environment must be ensured to operate
with security measures. There are chances for the security breach to occur in the virtual machine
(Alberts, C.J. and Dorofee, A., 2002).
The virtualization acts as a significant method for sharing storage space and CPU. The virtualization
requires the appropriate risk mitigation strategy to reduce any kind of risks associated with their
environment. Security audits and auditors play a key role in determining the issues and risks related
to the security. Information security audits are conducted regularly to measure the security features
and their provision. In this case, VMware virtual machine is considered for the security evaluation.
The virtual machine consists of the Linux operating system that has major advantages over the
Windows operating system. The security features in the virtual machine are assessed through
various audit protocols as per security standards to assess and to enhance further for the security
operations. The credentials such as the username and password are not provided for accessing the
virtual machine which can be easily viewed through the appropriate system (Devine, S.W., et.al,
2002).
Investigation of the Security System
The security features of the virtual machine are assessed one by one by adopting certain protocols.
The virtual machine in the VMWare software is accessed easily. Since the username and passwords
for the virtual machine are not provided, few steps are required for accessing the system. The virtual
machine requires changes in the username and password that can be achieved with the use of the
terminal program for command line actions.

The virtual environment IP is not known which is not provided. For accessing the virtual environment
and assessing the security features within the virtual environment, there is a great requirement for
determination of the IP (Dhillon et.al, 2006).
IP is determined in the terminal through the following commands
 arp-a
 ipconfig
For changing the password, we can adopt the similar ways as in Linux. Need to reset the password
and access the boot parameters. The user access is easily facilitated within the virtual environment
as the operation system is the linux-based one. The virtual environment access is made easy. The
security for the virtual environment is defined based on the requirements and audit steps are
focused for evaluating the security system.
Using GRUB loader, it is easy to identify the username, password, and identifying the IP details. The
environment allows numerous changes to the system for entry. For security evaluation, there are
numerous steps and protocol are present. For virtual images, the security evaluation is made easy by
identifying suitable steps necessary to reduce the risks of the security. Since the provided virtual
image is Linux based, the security features are easily audited in the virtual environment (Dunlap,
et.al, 2002).