Re: VMware ESX

["Robert Taylor" <rgt () wi mit edu>]

While it sounds like a compelling thing to do sometimes, I personally 
think it's a bad idea. You need to ask youself why are the machines in 
the DMZ in the first place. I'm assuming,

1. To help keep them from being compromised. 
2. To limit access if they get compromised.

If hackers can compromise and then somehow break out of the virtual 
machine, they may be able to then connect to an internal network, or 
compromise some of the other VM's on the ESX box. 

Also, they recommend installing vmware-tools on VM's in esx, which 
uses some side-channel communication between the VM and esx server. 
Find a way to compromise that, and you could possibly control the esx 
server itself. 

Esx isn't bulletproof. It's really a stripped down and highly tweaked 
linux, but it has security flaws as well. You need to keep it patched 
along with the OS's that run on it. If there is a bug in the NIC 
drivers on esx, that has potential to compromise the whole machine.

If you are using a san backend, if the esx box is compromised, hackers 
may have access to san resources as well. 

If you are intent on using ESX, I would setup a entirely separate 
environment for dmz servers. I just think there are too many places 
where things can go bad. 

rgt


----- Original Message -----
From: "Paul Heywood" <Paul.Heywood () unitypartnership com>
Date: Monday, April 21, 2008 8:23 am
Subject: VMware ESX

> Hi forum,
>
> we've got a VMware ESX group of servers running on the inside of 
> our network. Our server team want to extend this to include some 
> DMZ servers. How vulnerable would this leave the internal network 
> ? Am I correct in thinking that if the VMware cluster was hacked, 
> this would give them access to the internal network
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