🌐 Networking

VMFS (Virtual Machine File System)

The clustered file system VMware ESXi uses to store virtual machine files, such as .vmdk virtual disks, on shared datastores. Because many virtual machines' disks live on one datastore, an attacker with host access can encrypt or destroy them all at the storage layer at once.

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Why Ransomware Operators Encrypt at the Hypervisor Instead of the Guest

Attacking ESXi instead of individual VMs collapses the math: one host holds many workloads, the guest's defenses do not apply, and only backups the attacker cannot reach save you.

intermediate 4 min read

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