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if running a Virtual Machine on my Server in an external data center, is it possible to secure it in such a way that not even physical access could be a security leak? E.g. the administrator cannot access my VM?

Thanks, heinrich!

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migrated from stackoverflow.com Dec 9 '10 at 7:03

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3 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

You can encrypt its (virtual) hard disc and lock the console down (NB: it won't boot-up without a password entered), but you can't stop the host machine admin obtaining the contents of memory (or indeed the password, as they can log the virtual keyboard if they want).

If someone gets access to the VM host, all bets are off.

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What if I control the host and only I have the root access? –  Heinrich Dec 8 '10 at 21:34
@Heinrich: If someone else has physical access, then you don't control the host. –  caf Dec 9 '10 at 2:29
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No matter what you do inside the VM, it's the host that is emulating it - and if the operator in question has root on the host, they can either undo any changes you make or interact with the process/memory directly.

It's just not possible

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No way.

You can keep the server in our house if the data is very sensitive. The cost of doing this is affordable nowadays.

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