Virtualization-based Security, or VBS, is a Windows architecture that uses the hypervisor and hardware virtualization to create an isolated trust boundary for security-sensitive functions. Instead of keeping certain protections inside the normal operating system, VBS moves them into a more protected environment that is harder for malware or kernel-level exploits to tamper with.
VBS matters because attackers often target the Windows kernel to disable defenses, load malicious drivers, or gain persistent high privilege. Controls such as Memory Integrity rely on VBS to decide whether kernel-mode code should be allowed to run. In practice, defenders use VBS to raise the cost of low-level attacks, while administrators must also watch for driver compatibility issues, since older or poorly written drivers may fail under stricter code-integrity checks.