CVE-2014-3555 in Neutron
Summary
by MITRE
OpenStack Neutron before 2013.2.4, 2014.x before 2014.1.2, and Juno before Juno-2 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (crash or long firewall rule updates) by creating a large number of allowed address pairs.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/26/2022
The vulnerability described in CVE-2014-3555 represents a significant denial of service weakness within OpenStack Neutron networking components that affected multiple versions of the platform. This flaw specifically targeted the handling of allowed address pairs within the neutron networking service, creating a scenario where authenticated remote attackers could exploit the system's resource management capabilities to cause system instability or complete service disruption. The vulnerability existed in versions prior to 2013.2.4 for the 2013.x series, 2014.1.2 for the 2014.x series, and before Juno-2 for the Juno release, indicating a prolonged period of exposure across multiple OpenStack development cycles. The root cause of this vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which classifies improper resource management issues in software systems, particularly focusing on situations where resource consumption becomes unbounded or poorly controlled during processing of user inputs.
The technical mechanism behind this vulnerability involves the processing of allowed address pairs within the neutron networking service, which are used to define the valid IP addresses that can be associated with a network port. When an authenticated user creates a large number of these allowed address pairs, the system's firewall rule update mechanism becomes overwhelmed with processing requirements. This creates a scenario where the neutron service experiences either immediate crashes or extremely prolonged processing times for firewall rule updates, effectively rendering the networking service unavailable to other users. The flaw operates by exploiting the lack of proper input validation and resource limiting mechanisms within the neutron component's handling of address pair configurations. The system processes each allowed address pair individually, and when a large number are submitted simultaneously, the cumulative processing overhead exceeds the system's capacity to handle these operations efficiently, resulting in the denial of service condition.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple service disruption to encompass broader network infrastructure stability concerns. Organizations relying on OpenStack Neutron for their cloud networking infrastructure faced the risk of complete service outages or significant performance degradation when exploited by malicious actors. The vulnerability particularly affected multi-tenant environments where multiple users could potentially create these resource-consuming configurations, leading to cascading effects that impacted other tenants on the same infrastructure. Network administrators experienced challenges in maintaining service availability and could not rely on the system's normal operational parameters when large numbers of allowed address pairs were processed. The extended firewall rule update times could potentially lead to configuration drift or inconsistent network states, further complicating system management and increasing the risk of security breaches through indirect means.
Mitigation strategies for this vulnerability required immediate patch application to the affected OpenStack Neutron components, with organizations needing to upgrade to versions that included proper resource limiting and input validation controls. System administrators should implement rate limiting mechanisms to prevent excessive creation of allowed address pairs and establish monitoring protocols to detect anomalous usage patterns. The implementation of proper input validation and resource consumption limits within the neutron service helped address the underlying CWE-400 issue by ensuring that processing resources remained bounded and predictable. Organizations should also consider implementing network segmentation and access controls to limit the ability of authenticated users to create large numbers of address pairs, aligning with ATT&CK technique T1078 for valid accounts and T1499 for network denial of service. Regular security assessments and vulnerability scanning of OpenStack deployments became essential practices to identify similar resource management issues and ensure proper system hardening against similar exploitation vectors.