Taking Control of SDN-based Cloud Systems via the Data Plane
Kashyap Thimmaraju, Bhargava Shastry, Tobias Fiebig, Felicitas Hetzelt, Jean‐Pierre Seifert, Anja Feldmann, Stefan Schmid · 2018
Virtual switches are a crucial component of SDN-based cloud systems, enabling the interconnection of virtual machines in a flexible and "software-defined" manner. This paper raises the alarm on the security implications of virtual switches. In particular, we show that virtual switches not only increase the attack surface of the cloud, but virtual switch vulnerabilities can also lead to attacks of much higher impact compared to traditional switches.