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Risk R-001 - Unauthorized Administrative Access to Proxmox Host

FieldValue
Risk IDR-001
ScenarioS-002 - Unauthorized administrative access to infrastructure
AssetProxmox Host
Likelihood🟧 Medium - Exposed admin interfaces and credential compromise are common attack vectors
Impact🟥 High - Full control of virtualized infrastructure, potential destruction or modification of VMs
Risk rating🟥 High
OwnerSec / Ops
Last Review2026-03-08
Next Review2026-09-08

Associated Controls:

  • Harden administrative access (disable root login, enforce strong passwords and key-based authentication).
  • Require MFA and use a bastion host for all admin logins.
  • Restrict access via firewall rules and VPN.
  • Monitor authentication logs with SIEM; trigger alerts on suspicious login attempts.
  • Regularly rotate credentials and audit privileged accounts.

References:

  • ISO 27001 - Control 5.1 Policies for information security.
  • ISO 27001 - Control 8.2 Privileged access rights.
  • ISO 27001 - Control 8.16 Monitoring activities.
  • NIST CSF - ID.AM Asset Management.
  • NIST CSF - PR.AC Identity Management, Authentication and Access Control.
  • EBIOS RM - Identification of administrative access risks and compromise of virtualization assets.

Response actions:

  • Containment - Immediately revoke compromised credentials, restrict access, and isolate affected systems.
  • Eradication - Remove unauthorized users, re-secure administrative accounts, and apply hardening measures.
  • Recovery - Restore VMs from verified snapshots if integrity is compromised.
  • Post-incident - Conduct root cause analysis, review hardening checklist, and update incident response playbooks.