Protecting VM contents

[line7]

Hi!I

need to protect the contents of a VM which will be constantly running either on my own PC or amazon AWS or hertzner dedicated server..... we are still selecting among these 3.... I wonder how can I protect the access to an open and running vm? is there a vm password - or can I protect the contents of vm via a Bitlocker working in vim? I need to run vim and be sure it cannot be accessed by anyone (even if they wanted this very much). can this be done?

[line7]

so far I am abel to encrypt a VM and enter pass at vm start but not when I want to access its desktop - how do I do that?

[line7]

The key is to lock acess to an open and workign VM - is this beyond possible in the current version of the universe?

[line7]

I guess the only option is to lcok VMWARE WORKSTATION itself - but I hope there is still a way to do this in a traditional way

Lock Or Password Protect Open Windows, Running Programs And Apps

[line7]

I wonder if there is a built in way to potect an open and active VM????? i knwo abotu encrupting and restricting a Vm but hwo do I limit acces to an OPEN vm???????????????????????

[Parveen1988]

Hi,

Treat it as a physical computer, access to open VM can only be limited by using a logon password and by enabling GPOs.

[line7]

hi - what is a GPO? is there any way to lock VM from inside workstation?

[Parveen1988]

GPO is Group Policy Objects.

Read more about it here. You can set these objects to specify permission to a user or a set of users

What is Group Policy Object (GPO)? - Definition from WhatIs.com

[line7]

thank you!)

why cannot Vmware create a special protection for the open VMS?

[Parveen1988]

Hi,

VMware does have a protection at the VM level, means, you can restrict unauthorized access to a VM, for that you can encrypt your Virtual Machine. You can also restrict your VM, so that any user, even if he knows the Encryption password, can't make any changes at the VMware end, like he can't increase/decrease any hard disk or can't disable/enable any shared folder rule. Go to Settings->Options->Access Control to explore more about it.

P.S: Make sure that if you encrypt the VM, you MUST remember the password, if you lost the password, then your VM couldn't be recovered.

Please note that these restrictions are at the VM end, once the user logged into the Virtual Machine, then you have to use local policies or GPOs to restrict access of any Windows functionality. Think how would you restrict access to a physical computer, and then apply the same logic here.

[line7]

thank youf or your kind reply - so there is no way tyop block an open VM - which has already been started?

[Parveen1988]

Hi,

From VMware perspective: No way.

From Windows perspective: Multiple ways.

[line7]

hi -

can you recommend a single way to password protect and open applicaition (In  my case Vmware) - so that it will ask for password each time a window is activated?

[Parveen1988]

Unfortunately, you can't control opening of VMware Workstation.

You can though always password protect any Windows machine running in VMware.

Use Encryption

Go to Settings->Options->Access Control to explore more about it.

P.S: Make sure that if you encrypt the VM, you MUST remember the password, if you lost the password, then your VM couldn't be recovered.

[pwolf · Accepted solution]

You can restrict the users, who are able to use Vmware simply by setting access restrictions to or for one or more specified users for the whole Vmware workstation subfolder in the program files section. Then you logon as a user without access to the Vmware programs and start your Vmware sessions, Vms, etc. via runas using the specified Vmware users, which have access to the Vmware programs.

If then somebody wants to open any virtual machine, he/she has to use the runas command and enter a password.

[line7]

sounds very interesting - so I can restrict who can actually open or close a working window of a vm?

[line7]

The guest system needs to be in fully open mode - cannto be logged off - its screen needs to be open for the intrenal process automation to work properly...so can I block a VM with such prerequisites?