Compatibility is Not Transparency: VMM Detection Myths and Realities
Tal Garfinkel, Keith Adams, Andrew Warfield, Jason Franklin · 2007
Abstract Recent work on applications ranging from realistic hon-eypots to stealthier rootkits has speculated about building transparent VMMs- VMMs that are indistinguishablefrom native hardware, even to a dedicated adversary. We survey anomalies between real and virtual hardware andconsider methods for detecting such anomalies, as well as possible countermeasures. We conclude that build-ing a transparent VMM is fundamentally infeasible, as well as impractical from a performance and engineeringstandpoint.