[vbox-dev] VirtualBox DMA Security?

[Josh x90]

Hello all,

I have an interest in virtualisation security and I've been reading into the potential DMA access security issues in virtualisation.

According to one presentation:
(http://www.research.ibm.com/haifa/conferences/systor2010/present/2_2_3_presentation.pdf)

"- Untrusted guest programs a device, without any supervision.
 - Device is DMA capable (all modern devices are).
      - Which means the guest can program the device to
        overwrite any memory location.
 - Including where the hypervisor lives . . . game over."

How does DMA access work in VirtualBox? I've been unable to find any information on this.

Is VirtualBox vulnerable to this kind of attack?

All thoughts and links to relevant information are appreciated!

Cheers,
Josh