GHSA-99rx-9x8v-9j8p is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) Information Exposure vulnerability in nova. A fix is available for nova — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenStack Nova Live migration can leak root disk into ephemeral storage
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
GHSA-99rx-9x8v-9j8p 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 377,238 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
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
The i_create_images_and_backing (aka create_images_and_backing) method in libvirt driver in OpenStack Compute (Nova) Grizzly, Havana, and Icehouse, when using KVM live block migration, does not properly create all expected files, which allows attackers to obtain snapshot root disk contents of other users via ephemeral storage.
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 GHSA-99rx-9x8v-9j8p 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 GHSA-99rx-9x8v-9j8p can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-99rx-9x8v-9j8p. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| OpenStack 3 for RHEL 6 | openstack-nova-0:2013.1.5-2.el6ost | RHSA-2014:0366 |
| OpenStack 4 for RHEL 6 | openstack-nova-0:2013.2.2-2.el6ost | RHSA-2014:0231 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-99rx-9x8v-9j8p in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-99rx-9x8v-9j8p across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.