# A Security Perspective on Unikernels

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1911.06260 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.06260/

## Key facts

- Cited by 1 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 14 Nov 2019.

## Built on by (most cited first, 1 of 1)

- [CEKER: A Generalizable LLM Framework for Literature Analysis with a Case Study in Unikernel Security](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.10904/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Cloud-based infrastructures have grown in popularity over the last decade leveraging virtualisation, server, storage, compute power and network components to develop flexible applications. The requirements for instantaneous deployment and reduced costs have led the shift from virtual machine deployment to containerisation, increasing the overall flexibility of applications and increasing performances. However, containers require a fully fleshed operating system to execute, increasing the attack surface of an application. Unikernels, on the other hand, provide a lightweight memory footprint, ease of application packaging and reduced start-up times. Moreover, Unikernels reduce the attack surface due to the self-contained environment only enabling low-level features. In this work, we provide an exhaustive description of the unikernel ecosystem; we demonstrate unikernel vulnerabilities and further discuss the security implications of Unikernel-enabled environments through different use-cases.