ISO/IEC 21878:2018

Information technology — Security techniques — Security guidelines for design and implementation of virtualized servers

This document specifies security guidelines for the design and implementation of VSs. Design considerations focusing on identifying and mitigating risks, and implementation recommendations with respect to typical VSs are covered in this document. This document is not applicable to: (see also 5.3.2 Exclusions) — desktop, OS, network, and storage virtualization; and — vendor attestation. This document is intended to benefit any organization using and/or providing VSs.

Technologies de l'information — Techniques de sécurité — Lignes directrices pour la conception et l’implémentation sécurisées des serveurs virtualisés

General Information

• Status: Published
• Publication Date: 11-Nov-2018
• ICS: 35.030 - IT Security
• Technical Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 - Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection
• Drafting Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27/WG 4 - Security controls and services
• Current Stage: 9060 - Close of review
• Completion Date: 04-Jun-2029

Standards Content (Sample)

INTERNATIONAL ISO/IEC
STANDARD 21878
First edition
2018-11
Information technology — Security
techniques — Security guidelines
for design and implementation of
virtualized servers
Technologies de l'information — Techniques de sécurité — Lignes
directrices pour la conception et l’implémentation sécurisées des
serveurs virtualisés
Reference number
©
ISO/IEC 2018
© ISO/IEC 2018
All rights reserved. Unless otherwise specified, or required in the context of its implementation, no part of this publication may
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Published in Switzerland
ii © ISO/IEC 2018 – All rights reserved

Contents Page
Foreword .iv
Introduction .v
1 Scope . 1
2 Normative references . 1
3 Terms and definitions . 1
4 Symbols and abbreviated terms . 2
5 Overview of server virtualization . 3
5.1 Types of server virtualization . 3
5.2 Components of a VS . 3
5.3 Technical considerations . 4
5.3.1 General. 4
5.3.2 Exclusions . 4
6 Overview of security threats and risks . 5
6.1 General . 5
6.2 Common threats . 5
6.3 VS-specific risks . 6
6.3.1 General. 6
6.3.2 VM risks . 6
6.3.3 Hypervisor risks . 7
6.3.4 Operational risks related to implementation . 8
6.3.5 Cloud Services risks . 8
7 Recommendations for secure VS lifecycle . 9
7.1 General . 9
7.2 Initial preparation phase . 9
7.3 Planning and design phase .10
7.4 Implementation phase .10
7.5 Disposition phase .10
8 Planning and design phase: security considerations .10
8.1 General .10
8.2 Security considerations and satisfying requirements .11
9 Implementation phase: security checklist .11
9.1 General .11
9.2 Security checklist and vulnerability exposure .12
Annex A (informative) Risk assessment for VSs .14
Annex B (informative) Guidelines for implementing security checklist items in Table 2 .17
Bibliography .22
© ISO/IEC 2018 – All rights reserved iii

Foreword
ISO (the International Organization for Standardization) and IEC (the International Electrotechnical
Commission) form the specialized system for worldwide standardization. National bodies that
are members of ISO or IEC participate in the development of International Standards through
technical committees established by the respective organization to deal with particular fields of
technical activity. ISO and IEC technical committees collaborate in fields of mutual interest. Other
international organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liaison with ISO and IEC, also
take part in the work.
The procedures used to develop this document and those intended for its further maintenance are
described in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1. In particular, the different approval criteria needed for
the different types of document should be noted. This document was drafted in accordance with the
editorial rules of the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2 (see www .iso .org/directives).
Attention is drawn to the possibility that some of the elements of this document may be the subject
of patent rights. ISO and IEC shall not be held responsible for identifying any or all such patent
rights. Details of any patent rights identified during the development of the document will be in the
Introduction and/or on the ISO list of patent declarations received (see www .iso .org/patents) or the IEC
list of patent declarations received (see http: //patents .iec .ch).
Any trade name used in this document is information given for the convenience of users and does not
constitute an endorsement.
For an explanation of the voluntary nature of standards, the meaning of ISO specific terms and
expressions related to conformity assessment, as well as information about ISO's adherence to the
World Trade Organization (WTO) principles in the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) see www .iso
.org/iso/foreword .html.
This document was prepared by Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology,
Subcommittee SC 27, IT Security techniques.
Any feedback or questions on this document should be directed to the user’s national standards body. A
complete listing of these bodies can be found at www .iso .org/members .html.
iv © ISO/IEC 2018 – All rights reserved

Introduction
Data centre infrastructures are rapidly becoming virtualized due to increasing deployment of
virtualized servers (VSs) for cloud computing services and for internal IT services. Since VSs are
compute engines hosting many business-critical applications, they are key resources to be protected
in virtualized data centre infrastructure. As VSs are becoming mainstream in typical data centre
infrastructure setups, the secure design and implementation of VSs forms an important element in the
overall security strategy.
The purpose of this document is to provide security guidelines for the design and implementation of VSs.
The motivation for this document is the global trend in enterprises and government agencies deploying
server virtualization technologies within their internal IT infrastructure as well as the use of VSs by
cloud service providers. Hence the target audience is any organization using and/or providing VSs.
The intended goal of this document is to facilitate informed decisions with respect to architecting VS
configurations. Such design and implementation configuration is expected to assure the appropriate
protection for all virtual machines (VMs) and the application workloads running in them in the entire
virtualized infrastructure of the organization.
© ISO/IEC 2018 – All rights reserved v

INTERNATIONAL STANDARD ISO/IEC 21878:2018(E)
Information technology — Security techniques —
Security guidelines for design and implementation of
virtualized servers
1 Scope
This document specifies security guidelines for the design and implementation of VSs. Design
considerations focusing on identifying and mitigating risks, and implementation recommendations
with respect to typical VSs are covered in this document.
This document is not applicable to: (see also 5.3.2 Exclusions)
— desktop, OS, network, and storage virtualization; and
— vendor attestation.
This document is intended to benefit any organization using and/or providing VSs.
2 Normative references
The following documents are referred to in the text in such a way that some or all of their content
constitutes requirements of this document. For dated references, only the edition cited applies. For
undated references, the latest edition of the referenced document (including any amendments) applies.
ISO/IEC 17788, Information technology — Cloud computing — Overview and vocabulary
3 Terms and definitions
For the purposes of this document, the terms and definitions given in ISO/IEC 17788 and the
following apply.
ISO and IEC maintain terminological databases for use in standardization at the following addresses:
— ISO Online browsing platform: available at https: //www .iso .org/obp
— IEC Electropedia: available at http: //www .electropedia .org
3.1
domain
information domain
collection or cluster of virtual machines (3.7) hosted in one or more VSs
3.2
guest operating system
guest OS
operating system that runs within a virtual machine (3.7)
3.3
host operating system
host OS
operating system onto which virtualization software (hypervisor) is installed
Note 1 to entry: Host OS is an optional component of a virtualized server.
© ISO/IEC 2018 – All rights reserved 1

3.4
hypervisor
computer software that creates and runs one or more virtual machines (3.7)
3.5
management subsystem
component of a VS that enables administrators to configure the VS components
3.6
hardware
physical resources including processors, memory, devices, and associated firmware
3.7
virtual machine
VM
software-defined complete execution stack consisting of virtualized hardware (3.6), operating system
(guest OS), and applications
3.8
virtualized server
VS
physical host on which a hypervisor (3.4) is installed to enable execution of multiple virtual machines (3.7)
3.9
virtualized server administrator
VS administrator
person with rights and responsibilities to configure and manage VS components
3.10
virtual machine manager
VMM
all software that enables VMs to run on a virtualized platform which includes the hypervisor, service
VMs, virtual and physical device drivers
3.11
golden image
golden VM image
mas
...