Which of the following represents the GREATEST risk to virtualized environments?

The correct answer is A. Hypervisors may be a single point of failure. The hypervisor is the foundational layer that manages all virtual machines (VMs) on a physical host. If the hypervisor fails or is compromised, every VM running on that host goes down simultaneously-making it a single point of failure with catastrophic, cascading consequences…

Submitted by zhang_li· Apr 18, 2026Protection of Information Assets

Question

Options

AHypervisors may be a single point of failure
BAccount reviews may not be performed for guest operating systems
CVirtual servers may not have the latest security updates
DServers may only be accessed remotely

How the community answered

(25 responses)

A
72% (18)
B
4% (1)
C
8% (2)
D
16% (4)

Explanation

The hypervisor is the foundational layer that manages all virtual machines (VMs) on a physical host. If the hypervisor fails or is compromised, every VM running on that host goes down simultaneously-making it a single point of failure with catastrophic, cascading consequences. The other options are real risks (unpatched VMs, weak account reviews, remote-only access), but they are more containable and affect individual systems rather than the entire virtualized environment at once.

Topics

#Virtualization Security#Hypervisor#Risk Identification#Single Point of Failure

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