diff --git a/blog/2026-06-16-cve-2026-46448.md b/blog/2026-06-16-cve-2026-46448.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000000..85fd4b92a1 --- /dev/null +++ b/blog/2026-06-16-cve-2026-46448.md @@ -0,0 +1,88 @@ +--- +title: Lacking sanitization of Nova scheduler hints (OSSA-2026-022 / CVE-2026-46448) +authors: [garloff] +slug: nova_lacking_scheulder_hints_sanitization_ossa_2026_022 +tags: [security, openstack, nova, cve] +--- + +## The vulnerability + +When talking to the OpenStack Nova Compute API, Users can specify scheduler +hints, expressing preferences for Server (VM) placement. Users can however +inject a values `{"_nova_check_type": "rebuild"}` that is only meant to be used +internally in the rebuild context which causes certain resource checks to be +skipped. This can cause placement contraints such as host aggregates, AZs, image +traits to be ignored and cause PCI pass-through resources to not be properly +mapped. While the assigned quota is still observed, the vulnerability may cause +exhaustion of resources and confusion of the scheduler (placement) state and +thus may result in a Denial of Service for certain resource types. + +This issue was reported by Erichen, Institute of Computing Technology, Chinese +Academy of Sciences and was subsequently analyzed and handled by Goutham Pacha Ravi, +Dan Smith and Sylvain Bauza. It was assigned CVE-2026-46448. + +## Impact on the SCS software ecosystem + +Malevolent authenticated users could use this to schedule VMs on hosts that +would normally not be accessible to their VMs (e.g. because they are in a +host aggregate only available to GPU flavors which are manually enabled for +selected customers only). This could result in resource exhaustion for +legitimate users and cause the placement accounting to be confused. + +This will mainly affect providers that exposed specialized features via +special flavors (such as e.g. GPUs) which may be scarce. In particular, +PCI devices may be assigned without proper accounting in the placement +service. + +## Embargo + +The issue was reported to the OpenStack Vulnerability Management Team. +Following coordination with the reporters and upstream developers, the official +OpenStack Security Advisory +[OSSA-2026-022](https://security.openstack.org/ossa/OSSA-2026-022.html) was +published on Tuesday, 2026-06-16, 15:00 UTC. + +## Mitigation and Fixes + +The fix consists in ensuring that internal `_nova_` scheduler hints are properly +filtered out in the API exposed to users. + +Providers are advised to deploy fixed nova-api containers. +The SCS ecosystem software providers will provide fixed nova images along with +update instructions. + +- [OSISM](https://osism.tech/docs/appendix/security/ossa-2026-022) +- [yaook](https://yaook.cloud/security-advisories-cve-2026-46448/) + +Operators where users may have caused confusion in the placement accounting +will need to run + +```shell +nova-manage placement heal_allocations +``` + +to ensure that accounting in the placement service is consistent again. + +## References + +- [OSSA-2026-022 Advisory](https://security.openstack.org/ossa/OSSA-2026-022.html) +- [Launchpad Bug #2151252](https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bug/2151252) + +## Thanks + +The author would like to thank the reporters, the OpenStack vulnerability +management team and the abovementioned maintainers for reporting, +analyzing, fixing and handling the issue. + +## Sovereign Cloud Stack Security Contact + +SCS security contact is +[security@scs.community](mailto:security@scs.community), as published on +[https://sovereigncloudstack.org/.well-known/security.txt](https://sovereigncloudstack.org/.well-known/security.txt). + +## Version history + +- Initial draft, v0.5, 2026-06-16, 13:30 CEST +- Initial publication, v1.0, 2026-06-16, 17:00 CEST +- Link OSISM advisory, v1.1, 2026-06-16, 19:30 CEST +- Link yaook advisory, v1.2, 2026-06-17, 13:30 CEST