VM2: Automated security configuration and testing of virtual machine images

Setting up a virtual machine (VM) in the cloud is a time-consuming task. Typically, VMs are created from so called VM images, a kind of blueprints used to configure and create a VM. However, to create a VM image manually might be very time-consuming, especially if the VM has to meet certain security benchmarks. In this paper, we present VM2 (Virtual Machine Vending Machine), a tool for creation of VM images and testing them wrt. security benchmarks as well as easy sharing the secure images. Our analysis demonstrated a significant reduction in security issues in hardened images created by VM2 in comparison with corresponding publicly available images. Moreover, our tool provided better results wrt. CIS benchmarks in comparison with the corresponding images commercially offered by CIS.