CVE-2026-50589 — ironic
MEDIUMCVE-2026-50589 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) vulnerability in ironic. A fix is available for ironic — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenStack Ironic: Crafted JSON String to Certain Endpoints on the API or JSON-RPC Service May Result in Service Crash
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-50589.
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-2026-50589 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 379,145 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
ironicReal-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
In OpenStack Ironic 32 before 37.0.0, an unauthenticated malicious user could submit a crafted JSON string to some endpoints on the API or JSON-RPC service and effect a service crash.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | ironic | ≥ 32.0.0&&< 37.0.0 | 37.0.0pip install --upgrade 'ironic==37.0.0' |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for ironic, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update ironic to 37.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-50589 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-2026-50589 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-50589. 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.
To reduce the risk of exploitation, restrict network access to the OpenStack Ironic API and JSON-RPC service endpoints. Configure firewall rules to permit connections only from trusted hosts and networks that require access to Ironic services. This operational control limits the attack surface by preventing unauthenticated remote attackers from reaching the vulnerable endpoints. A restart of the Ironic services may be required for firewall changes to take full effect, which could temporarily impact bare metal provisioning operations.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2026-50589 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-50589 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-50589 across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.