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Openstack PlatformApplication · Redhat

CVE-2023-3637

MEDIUM · 6.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-07-25
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
71/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
An uncontrolled resource consumption flaw was found in openstack-neutron. This flaw allows a remote authenticated user to query a list of security groups for an invalid project. This issue creates resources that are unconstrained by the user's quota. If a malicious user were to submit a significant number of requests, this could lead to a denial of service.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

An uncontrolled resource consumption flaw in openstack-neutron allows authenticated users to query security groups for invalid projects, which creates resources outside normal quota constraints. This quota bypass can be exploited by remote authenticated users to consume excessive resources, potentially leading to denial of service.

MitigationApply the upstream Neutron patch to enforce proper quota validation for security group queries on invalid projects, and monitor for anomalous resource consumption patterns from authenticated users.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
Openstack PlatformApplication
Affected:= 13.0= 16.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify Neutron service version
    Run 'neutron --version' or check the installed rpm package version with 'rpm -q neutron'
    Affected if The installed version matches Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13.0 or 16.2
  2. Verify quota enforcement for security groups
    Use openstack CLI to query security group quotas: 'openstack quota show --tenant <tenant_id>' and attempt creating security groups beyond the quota limit to test enforcement
    Affected if Security groups can be created exceeding the defined quota limits
  3. Check for security group queries on non-existent projects
    Review Neutron API logs (typically in /var/log/neutron/*.log) for API calls to '/v2.0/security-groups' with invalid project_id parameters
    Affected if Logs show authenticated users successfully querying security groups for projects they do not belong to or that do not exist
  4. Monitor resource consumption patterns
    Query the Neutron database for security group count per project: 'neutron security-group-list --tenant-id <project_id>' across multiple tenants and compare to quota settings
    Affected if Any project shows security group resource counts significantly exceeding their allocated quota
  5. Audit security group ownership
    Execute 'openstack security group list --all-projects' (if admin) and cross-reference project_ids with valid Keystone projects
    Affected if Security groups exist mapped to project IDs that do not correspond to any valid project in Keystone

A system is affected if running Red Hat OpenStack Platform 13.0 or 16.2 with Neutron and security group resources can be created beyond quota limits or for invalid projects.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Apply the upstream Neutron patch to enforce proper quota validation for security group queries on invalid projects, and monitor for anomalous resource consumption patterns from authenticated users.

Fix this in Openstack Platform Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation12.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
28.0 hours of engineering $4,880
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-3637 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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