CVE-2014-3517
Description
A side-channel timing attack flaw was found in Nova. An attacker could possibly use this flaw to guess valid instance ID signatures, giving them access to details of another instance, by analyzing the response times of requests for instance metadata. This issue only affected configurations that proxy metadata requests via Neutron.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v2 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 4.3 | 4.3 | N/A |
| Attack Vector | Network | Network | N/A |
| Access Complexity | Medium | Medium | N/A |
| Authentication | None | None | N/A |
| Confidentiality Impact | Partial | Partial | N/A |
| Integrity Impact | None | None | N/A |
| Availability Impact | None | None | N/A |
Vector
Red Hat: AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
NVD: AV:N/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:N/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality,Other
Technical Impact: Read Application Data; Other
In some instances, knowing when data is transmitted between parties can provide a malicious user with privileged information. Also, externally monitoring the timing of operations can potentially reveal sensitive data. For example, a cryptographic operation can expose its internal state if the time it takes to perform the operation varies, based on the state.
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank OpenStack project for reporting this issue. Upstream acknowledges Alex Gaynor (Rackspace) as the original reporter.
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