Which virtualization risk occurs when an OS on a VM outbursts to access a hypervisor?

The concept of "guest breakout" refers to a situation where a compromised virtual machine (VM) gains unauthorized access to the hypervisor or other VMs running on the same physical host. This represents a significant security risk because the hypervisor is responsible for managing multiple VMs, and if an attacker can escape the confines of a single VM, they may potentially disrupt or attack other VMs hosted on the same hardware.

Guest breakout typically arises from vulnerabilities in the hypervisor itself or misconfigurations that allow for an escalation of privileges or exploitation of inter-VM communication pathways. The consequences of such a breakout can include the exfiltration of sensitive data, application downtime, or further compromise of the cloud environment, thereby posing a serious threat to the integrity and security of the overall infrastructure.

In contrast, the other answer choices relate to different challenges in cloud environments. Provider lock-in refers to the difficulty of migrating services or data from one provider to another. Provider exit is about a cloud provider discontinuing service or going out of business. Sprawl refers to the uncontrolled proliferation of VMs, which increases management complexity and security risks but does not specifically concern the exploitation of hypervisor vulnerabilities.