GHSA-ffmh-r67w-m88f is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) vulnerability in nova. 2 public exploit references exist, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for nova — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenStack Nova Denial of service attack on the compute host
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-ffmh-r67w-m88f 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 376,715 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
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 15.x through 15.1.0 and 16.x through 16.1.1. By detaching and reattaching an encrypted volume, an attacker may access the underlying raw volume and corrupt the LUKS header, resulting in a denial of service attack on the compute host. (The same code error also results in data loss, but that is not a vulnerability because the user loses their own data.) All Nova setups supporting encrypted volumes are affected.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | nova | ≥ 15.0.0&&< 15.1.1 | 15.1.1pip install --upgrade 'nova==15.1.1' |
| 🐍PyPI | nova | ≥ 16.0.0&&< 16.1.2 | 16.1.2pip install --upgrade 'nova==16.1.2' |
Research 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 15.1.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-ffmh-r67w-m88f 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-ffmh-r67w-m88f can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-ffmh-r67w-m88f. 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 OpenStack Platform 10.0 (Newton) | openstack-nova-1:14.1.0-26.el7ost | RHSA-2018:2714 |
| Red Hat OpenStack Platform 12.0 (Pike) | openstack-nova-1:16.1.4-6.el7ost | RHSA-2018:2332 |
| Red Hat OpenStack Platform 9.0 (Mitaka) | openstack-nova-1:13.1.4-24.el7ost | RHSA-2018:2855 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-ffmh-r67w-m88f in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-ffmh-r67w-m88f across PyPI dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.