virtual box and video isolation

[Norman Feske]

Hi Tim,

>     I was wondering how the virtualbox implementation on top of
> genode/nova fares against this type of attack:
> https://hsmr.cc/palinopsia/
> 
> is 3d acceleration used? is there strong isolation of the video memory?

our version of VirtualBox does not use/support hardware-accelerated
graphics. We needed a GPU driver first.

Thanks for the link. It is important to keep such attack vectors in
mind. It also bears the question: Does your BIOS clear all physical
memory at boot time? If not, couldn't an attacker with physical access
to a machine (i.e., a stolen laptop that may still be locked with a
screensaver) reset the machine, boot a custom OS from a USB stick, and
scan the memory for credentials? What would be a viable defense against
such a scenario?

Cheers
Norman

-- 
Dr.-Ing. Norman Feske
Genode Labs

http://www.genode-labs.com · http://genode.org

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