CVE-2022-37394 is a low-severity (CVSS 3.3) vulnerability in nova. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for nova — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenStack Nova Changing vnic_type breaks compute service restart
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
nova🐍nova🐍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
An issue was discovered in OpenStack Nova before 23.2.2, 24.x before 24.1.2, and 25.x before 25.0.2. By creating a neutron port with the direct vnic_type, creating an instance bound to that port, and then changing the vnic_type of the bound port to macvtap, an authenticated user may cause the compute service to fail to restart, resulting in a possible denial of service. Only Nova deployments configured with SR-IOV are affected.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | nova | all versions | 23.2.2pip install --upgrade 'nova==23.2.2' |
| 🐍PyPI | nova | ≥ 24.0.0&&< 24.1.2 | 24.1.2pip install --upgrade 'nova==24.1.2' |
| 🐍PyPI | nova | ≥ 25.0.0&&< 25.0.2 | 25.0.2pip install --upgrade 'nova==25.0.2' |
Affected Products
novaopenstackResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
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 23.2.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-37394 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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.2 | openstack-nova-1:20.6.2-2.20230308185148.fc01371.el8ost | RHSA-2023:1948 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-37394 in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.