| The operating system isolates security functions from non-security functions by means of an isolation boundary (implemented via partitions and domains) controlling access to and protecting the integrity of the hardware, software, and firmware that perform those security functions. The information system maintains a separate execution domain (e.g., address space) for each executing process. Permanent not a finding - Virtual machines are the containers in which applications and guest operating systems run. By design, all VMware virtual machines are isolated from one another. This isolation enables multiple virtual machines to run securely while sharing hardware, and ensures both their ability to access hardware and their uninterrupted performance. Even a user with system administrator privileges on a virtual machine's guest operating system cannot breach this layer of isolation to access another virtual machine without privileges explicitly granted by the ESXi system administrator. As a result of virtual machine isolation, if a guest operating system running in a virtual machine fails, other virtual machines on the same host continue to run. The guest operating system failure has no effect on: the ability of users to access the other virtual machines, the ability of the operational virtual machines to access the resources they need, or the performance of the other virtual machines. |
