CVE-2013-4463 — nova
Fix: openstack/nova@3cdfe89CVE-2013-4463 is a CWE-399 vulnerability in nova. A fix is available for nova — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenStack Nova denial of service through compressed disk images
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
Real-World Exposure
novaReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
OpenStack Compute (Nova) Folsom, Grizzly, and Havana does not properly verify the virtual size of a QCOW2 image, which allows local users to cause a denial of service (host file system disk consumption) via a compressed QCOW2 image. NOTE: this issue is due to an incomplete fix for CVE-2013-2096.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | nova | all versions | 12.0.0a0pip install --upgrade 'nova==12.0.0a0' |
Affected Products
folsomopenstackgrizzlyopenstackhavanaopenstackDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for nova, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update nova to 12.0.0a0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2013-4463 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Cap what an attacker can consume: apply request size, rate and timeout limits in front of the affected component, and run it with memory and CPU limits so exhaustion degrades one worker rather than the whole service.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
The Red Hat Security Response Team has rated this issue as having moderate security impact. For additional information, refer to the Issue Severity Classification: https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| OpenStack 3 for RHEL 6 | openstack-nova-0:2013.1.4-4.el6ost | RHSA-2014:0112 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2013-4463 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.