CVE-2015-1852 — keystonemiddleware
HIGHCVE-2015-1852 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-17 vulnerability in keystonemiddleware. A fix is available for keystonemiddleware — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenStack keystonemiddleware and python-keystoneclient vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks
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.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2015-1852 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
keystonemiddleware🐍python-keystoneclientReal-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
The s3_token middleware in OpenStack keystonemiddleware before 1.6.0 and python-keystoneclient before 1.4.0 disables certification verification when the "insecure" option is set in a paste configuration (paste.ini) file regardless of the value, which allows remote attackers to conduct man-in-the-middle attacks via a crafted certificate, a different vulnerability than CVE-2014-7144.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | keystonemiddleware | all versions | 1.6.0pip install --upgrade 'keystonemiddleware==1.6.0' |
| 🐍PyPI | python-keystoneclient | all versions | 1.4.0pip install --upgrade 'python-keystoneclient==1.4.0' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for keystonemiddleware, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update keystonemiddleware to 1.6.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2015-1852 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-2015-1852 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2015-1852. 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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 5.0 (Icehouse) for RHEL 6 | python-keystoneclient-1:0.9.0-6.el6ost | RHSA-2015:1685 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux OpenStack Platform 6.0 (Juno) for RHEL 7 | python-keystoneclient-1:0.11.1-2.el7ost | RHSA-2015:1677 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2015-1852 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2015-1852 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.