CompTIA CySA+ Practice Test

What is the most severe vulnerability that may exist in a virtualized environment?

1. VM migration

2. VM sprawl

3. VM data remnant

4. VM escape

The correct answer is: VM escape

In a virtualized environment, VM escape is considered the most severe vulnerability. VM escape refers to a situation where an attacker is able to break out of a virtual machine (VM) and gain unauthorized access to the hypervisor or other VMs running on the same physical host. This can lead to serious security breaches, as the attacker could potentially compromise all VMs on that host, exfiltrate sensitive data, or launch further attacks within the environment. The reason why VM escape is particularly severe is that it fundamentally bypasses the isolation that virtualization technology provides. Virtualization typically allows multiple VMs to run on the same physical hardware while maintaining separate environments; however, if an attacker exploits a vulnerability that allows them to escape their own VM, the security of the entire virtualized environment is jeopardized. The other options, while they present challenges in a virtualized environment, do not pose as imminent a risk to the fundamental security of the system. VM migration involves transferring VMs across hosts, which can be managed securely, and VM sprawl deals with the proliferation of unused VMs that can add complexity but do not directly compromise security. VM data remnant relates to residual data left in a VM after deletion, which can lead to data leaks, but again