ARTIFACT MITIGATION IN HIGH-FIDELITY HYPERVISORS

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Authors
Norine, Christopher R.
Subjects
high fidelity hypervisors
virtualization
artifact mitigation
Advisors
Shaffer, Alan B.
Singh, Gurminder
Date of Issue
2020-09
Date
Sep-20
Publisher
Monterey, CA; Naval Postgraduate School
Language
Abstract
The use of hypervisors for cyber operations has increased significantly over the past decade, resulting in an associated increase in the demand for higher-fidelity hypervisors. These hypervisors would not exhibit the markers, or artifacts, that expose the presence of the virtualized environments present in most currently available virtualization solutions. To address this, we present an in-depth examination of a subset of virtualization artifacts in order to design and implement a software solution that will reduce the detectability via mitigation of these artifacts. Our analysis includes performant measures of a bare metal machine, a virtualized machine without our mitigations, and a virtualized machine with our mitigations. The analysis also includes a measure of our implemented system's simulated sensor output. Results of the implementation are analyzed to determine the potential performance impact, the accuracy of our system's simulated output, and whether our mitigation technique is appropriate for extending high-fidelity hypervisors.
Type
Thesis
Description
Department
Computer Science (CS)
Organization
Identifiers
NPS Report Number
Sponsors
Funder
Format
Citation
Distribution Statement
Approved for public release. distribution is unlimited
Rights
This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States
Collections