GHSA-xc4g-7vw8-924h is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-264 vulnerability in nova. 2 public exploit or proof-of-concept references are indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for nova — see the affected versions and patch details below.
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
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
virt/disk/api.py in OpenStack Compute (Nova) 2012.1.x before 2012.1.2 and Folsom before Folsom-3 allows remote authenticated users to overwrite arbitrary files via a symlink attack on a file in an image that uses a symlink that is only readable by root. NOTE: this vulnerability exists because of an incomplete fix for CVE-2012-3361.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | nova | all versions | 12.0.0pip install --upgrade 'nova==12.0.0' |
Affected Products
folsomopenstacknovaopenstackResearch 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 12.0.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-xc4g-7vw8-924h 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.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-xc4g-7vw8-924h in your dependencies?
Find it across PyPI, including transitive dependencies.