One issue related to execution of a guest supervisor environment within a host e

Question

One issue related to execution of a guest supervisor environment within a host environment on a single computer is the matter of hierarchical protection domains; in the simplest IA-32 ISA execution model, these often are termed in jargon as privilege rings, e.g., ring 0 through ring 3. In this simple ring jargon, in which ring does the host operating system kernel execute in a non-virtualized environment? In which ring does the guest operating system execute? What is a privileged instruction and how does VirtualBox handle such an instruction from the guest operating system?

Explanation / Answer

ring 0.

protection rings, are mechanisms to protect data and functionality from faults (by improving fault tolerance) and malicious behaviour (by providing computer security). This approach is diametrically opposite to that of capability-based security.

all guest operating system can execute unmodified as they used to in ring 0 and ring 3.

the main obstacles to virtualize x86 system are the visibility of privileged state and lack of traps when privileged instructions run at user-level.

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