Security in virtualized computing environments

A computer system comprising:

• a processor and memory storing computer program code to identify one or more parameters of a configuration of a target virtual machine (VM) in a virtualized computing environment used in a security attack against the target VM, the security attack exhibiting a particular attack characteristic by:
• training a machine learning algorithm as a classifier based on a plurality of training data items, each training data item corresponding to a training VM and including a representation of parameters for a configuration of the training VM and a representation of characteristics of security attacks for the training VM;
• generating a first data structure for storing one or more relationships between VM configuration parameters and attack characteristics, wherein the first data structure is generated by sampling the trained machine learning algorithm to identify the one or more relationships;
• receiving a second data structure storing a directed graph representation of one or more sequences of VM configuration parameters for achieving the particular attack characteristic of the security attack, the VM configuration parameters in the directed graph being determined based on the first data structure;
• and
• determining a subset of sequences in the directed graph corresponding to VM configuration parameters of the target VM to identify VM configuration parameters of the target VM used in the security attack.