Security guide
Potentially insecure operations
The following features of VirtualBox can present security
problems:
Enabling 3D graphics via the Guest Additions exposes the host
to additional security risks; see .
When teleporting a machine, the data stream through which the
machine's memory contents are transferred from one host to another
is not encrypted. A third party with access to the network through
which the data is transferred could therefore intercept that
data.
When using the VirtualBox web service to control a VirtualBox
host remotely, connections to the web service (through which the API
calls are transferred via SOAP XML) are not encrypted, but use plain
HTTP. This is a potential security risk! For details about the web
service, please see .
All traffic sent over an UDP Tunnel network attachment is not
encrypted. You can either encrypt it on the host network level (with
IPsec), or use encrypted protocols in the guest network (such as
SSH). The security properties are similar to bridged Ethernet.
Authentication
The following components of VirtualBox can use passwords for
authentication:
When using the VirtualBox extension pack provided by Oracle
for VRDP remote desktop support, you can optionally use various
methods to configure RDP authentication. The "null" method is
very insecure and should be avoided in a public network.
See for details.
When using teleporting, passwords can optionally be used to
protect a machine waiting to be teleported from unauthorized access.
Note however that these passwords are stored unencrypted in the machine configuration XML
and therefore potentially readable on the host. See and .
When using remote iSCSI storage and the storage server
requires authentication, a password can optionally be supplied with
the VBoxManage storageattach
command. Note however that this is stored unencrypted in the machine configuration and
is therefore potentially readable on the host. See and .
When using the VirtualBox web service to control a VirtualBox
host remotely, connections to the web service are authenticated in
various ways. This is described in detail in the VirtualBox Software
Development Kit (SDK) reference; please see .
Encryption
The following components of VirtualBox use encryption to protect
sensitive data:
When using the VirtualBox extension pack provided by Oracle
for VRDP remote desktop support, RDP data can optionally be
encrypted. See for details. Only
the Enhanced RDP Security method (RDP5.2) with TLS protocol
provides a secure connection. Standard RDP Security (RDP4 and
RDP5.1) is vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack.