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
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
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' |
Detection & 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
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2013-4463 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2013-4463. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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?
O3 Security finds CVE-2013-4463 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.