CVE-2012-1585 in Nova
Summary
by MITRE
OpenStack Compute (Nova) Essex before 2011.3 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (Nova-API log file and disk consumption) via a long server name.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 12/07/2021
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2012-1585 affects OpenStack Compute (Nova) Essex releases prior to version 2011.3, representing a significant denial of service weakness that can be exploited by authenticated remote attackers. This flaw specifically targets the Nova-API component within the OpenStack infrastructure, where improper handling of server names leads to excessive resource consumption. The vulnerability manifests when attackers submit server names exceeding normal length parameters, causing cascading effects that impact both logging mechanisms and storage utilization throughout the Nova service architecture.
The technical root cause of this vulnerability stems from inadequate input validation within the Nova-API subsystem, which fails to properly sanitize or limit the length of server names during instance creation requests. When a malicious user submits an exceptionally long server name, the system processes this input without appropriate bounds checking, leading to excessive logging entries that rapidly consume disk space. The flaw operates at the application layer and demonstrates characteristics consistent with CWE-122, which addresses buffer overflow conditions and memory allocation issues. The vulnerability specifically impacts the Nova-API service that handles instance creation requests, making it exploitable by any authenticated user with sufficient privileges to make API calls to the Nova service.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to encompass significant resource exhaustion and potential system instability. As the Nova-API processes these long server names, log files grow exponentially, consuming disk space and potentially leading to system-wide resource exhaustion. The storage consumption issue becomes particularly problematic in cloud environments where disk space is a finite resource and multiple concurrent attacks could rapidly deplete available storage. Additionally, the excessive logging creates performance degradation as the system struggles to manage the massive volume of log entries, ultimately resulting in denial of service conditions that prevent legitimate users from creating new instances or accessing existing services. This vulnerability directly aligns with ATT&CK technique T1499.004, which covers network denial of service attacks through resource exhaustion.
Mitigation strategies for CVE-2012-1585 should focus on implementing proper input validation and length restrictions within the Nova-API service. Organizations should immediately upgrade to OpenStack Essex 2011.3 or later versions where this vulnerability has been addressed through enhanced input sanitization mechanisms. Additionally, system administrators should implement log rotation policies with size-based limits to prevent unbounded growth of log files, and establish monitoring alerts for unusual disk space consumption patterns. The implementation of rate limiting and request size validation at the API gateway level provides an additional defensive layer, while regular security audits should verify that all input parameters are properly validated before processing. Network segmentation and access controls should be reinforced to limit the attack surface, ensuring that only authorized users can make instance creation requests that might trigger this vulnerability.