Broadcom launched VMware HyperArmor, a solution designed to help protect the VMware ESX hypervisor component of VMware Cloud Foundation (VCF) against AI-driven attacks.

VMware HyperArmor, which supports ESX 8.x and later, provides host-level virtual patching that detects and blocks exploits without requiring reboots or software upgrades. According to Broadcom, this reduces vulnerability exposure while giving IT teams flexibility to schedule official patches.

The release also establishes security baselines that automatically block unauthorized processes and scripts without requiring agents inside guest virtual machines (VMs). Additionally, hypervisor-level multifactor authentication (MFA) protects ESX secure shell (SSH) access against stolen credentials by requiring a secondary one-time password.

HyperArmor complements VCF's existing security capabilities, including centralized identity management, encryption, and vSphere live patching, which enables hypervisor updates without workload downtime. It also works alongside VMware vDefend's network-level virtual patching, microsegmentation, and threat prevention capabilities to provide layered protection across the hypervisor, infrastructure, and network.

By patching exposure windows without disrupting the workloads that depend on the host, Broadcom aims to tackle the exponential increase in AI-infused cybersecurity attack sophistication.

In a media preview of the solution, Eric Chien, Broadcom ESG Division director, told this title that the solution did not come because of a specific security flashpoint moment, arguing the “flashpoint is actually just AI and all these frontier AI models.”

“It's really about providing an additional tool to these administrators to sort of shrink the window and give them time. These administrators don't want to be patching every week, every day, and they just want to buy time so they can roll out their patches," Chien said. "They can test themselves before they do so, and that's what Hyper Armor does. … Now, of course, we always still want you to patch. That is the right thing to do. But this basically buys you time and that's what the customers were asking for."

VMware HyperArmor’s release coincidentally comes a few short days after SoftBank’s national cloud arm was hit by a ransomware attack targeting its VM estate.

Infrastructure-as-a-service vendor IDC Frontier saw its vCenter (VMware vCenter Server) compromised by attackers who claimed they reached almost 240 hypervisors, destroyed more than 554,150 snapshots, and removed a whopping 41.5 petabytes of backup capacity. It also claimed to have encrypted 225 data stores, which hold VM files and virtual disks.