  In this article, virtualization security concerns in the cloud computing
domain are reviewed. The focus is toward virtual machine (VM) security where
attacks and vulnerabilities such as VM escape, VM hopping, cross-VM
side-channel, VM-based rootkits (VMBRs), VM mobility, and VM remote are
mentioned and discussed according to their relevance in the clouds. For each
attack we outline how they affect the security of cloud systems.
Countermeasures and security measures to detect or prevent them through
techniques such as VM detection, GuardHype, VM introspection, VM image
scanning, etc. are also discussed. Through the surveyed work we present a
classification of VM threats within the clouds. Finally, we include our
observations and those of other researchers on this matter of cloud
virtualization security.
