The Hyper-V Security Model

Because the hypervisor sits below all other components (see Chapter 1, “Introducing Hyper-V,” for the architectural overview), it’s naturally the first attack target of those looking to compromise a Hyper-V host.

One of the most talked-about items related to the security of hypervisors (not specific to Hyper-V) is the blue pill, which harks back to the film The Matrix. If you ingested the blue pill, you had no idea that you actually lived inside the Matrix. The blue pill concept was first written about by Joanna Rutkowska and presented at the Black Hat Security Conference in 2006; it refers to the possibility of malware being injected into a hypervisor-aware platform without the user’s knowledge. Needless to say, it caused quite a stir when people learned that a hypervisor could be subverted so easily.