Network and hypervisor-based attacks in cloud computing environments

Cloud computing (CC) has become one of the most transformative computing technologies and a key business avenue, following in the footsteps of main-frames, minicomputers, personal computers, the World Wide Web and smartphones. Its vital features have considerably reduced IT costs, contributing to its rapid adoption by businesses and governments worldwide. Despite the many technological and economic benefits that CC offers, at the same time, it poses complex security threats resulting from the use of virtualisation technology. Compromising the security of any component in the cloud virtual infrastructure will negatively affect the security of other elements and so impact the overall system security. Therefore, to create a practical understanding of such threats, this paper provides an analysis of common and underexplored network- and hypervisor-based attacks against CC systems from a technical viewpoint.