CVE-2015-3241 in Compute
Summary
by MITRE
OpenStack Compute (nova) 2015.1 through 2015.1.1, 2014.2.3, and earlier does not stop the migration process when the instance is deleted, which allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (disk, network, and other resource consumption) by resizing and then deleting an instance.
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 06/14/2022
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2015-3241 affects OpenStack Compute (nova) versions ranging from 2015.1 through 2015.1.1 and 2014.2.3, representing a critical flaw in the virtual machine lifecycle management system. This issue stems from the improper handling of instance migration processes when instances are deleted during active migration operations, creating a scenario where the system fails to terminate ongoing migration activities properly. The flaw specifically manifests in the nova compute service's inability to enforce proper cleanup procedures when an instance is removed while in the midst of a migration process, leading to resource leaks and potential system instability.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the nova scheduler and compute components failing to maintain proper synchronization between instance state management and migration processes. When a user initiates a resize operation followed by immediate deletion of an instance, the migration thread continues to consume system resources including disk I/O, network bandwidth, and memory allocation even after the instance has been marked for deletion. This behavior violates fundamental resource management principles and creates a persistent resource consumption pattern that can be exploited by authenticated users. The flaw operates at the application level within the OpenStack nova service, specifically affecting the compute service's migration handling logic and instance state transition mechanisms.
From an operational impact perspective, this vulnerability enables authenticated attackers to launch sustained denial of service attacks against OpenStack deployments by consuming system resources through the deliberate exploitation of the migration deletion race condition. The resource consumption affects multiple system components including storage systems, network infrastructure, and compute resources, potentially leading to complete service unavailability. Attackers can repeatedly perform resize and delete operations to create multiple concurrent resource leaks, effectively exhausting available capacity and causing legitimate users to experience service degradation or complete service interruption. The vulnerability is particularly dangerous in multi-tenant environments where resource exhaustion could impact other tenants or cause cascading failures throughout the cloud infrastructure.
The mitigation strategies for CVE-2015-3241 involve immediate patching of affected OpenStack nova components to ensure proper termination of migration processes upon instance deletion. Organizations should implement monitoring solutions to detect unusual resource consumption patterns and establish automated alerting for migration process anomalies. Network segmentation and resource quotas should be configured to limit the impact of resource exhaustion attacks, while proper access controls and authentication mechanisms should be enforced to prevent unauthorized exploitation. The vulnerability aligns with CWE-400, which covers resource exhaustion issues, and can be categorized under ATT&CK technique T1499.001 for resource exhaustion attacks. System administrators should also implement regular security audits of OpenStack configurations and ensure that all components are updated to supported versions that address this specific vulnerability. The remediation process requires careful coordination between different OpenStack services and should include thorough testing to prevent regression issues in migration functionality.