---
id: CVE-2013-6437
aliases:
  - GHSA-hrv9-4x4c-9jc8
  - PYSEC-2026-874
title: OpenStack Nova DoS through ephemeral disk backing files
summary: OpenStack Nova DoS through ephemeral disk backing files
severity: medium
vendor: nova
product: nova
ecosystem: pip
affected:
  - nova < 12.0.0a0
patched:
  - nova 12.0.0a0
published: '2022-05-14'
updated: '2026-07-07'
source: OSV
sourceUrl: 'https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-hrv9-4x4c-9jc8'
references:
  - url: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2013-6437'
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/openstack/nova/commit/3e451f1bac57d24e47171cffb3ad59bb1610d836
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/openstack/nova/commit/6e455cd97f04bf26bbe022be17c57e089cf502f4
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/openstack/nova/commit/ca38774ebcf5b67d16c202c8f218c0c433973ca9
  - url: 'https://bugs.launchpad.net/nova/+bug/1253980'
  - url: 'https://github.com/openstack/nova'
  - url: >-
      http://lists.openstack.org/pipermail/openstack-announce/2013-December/000179.html
  - url: 'http://rhn.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2014-0231.html'
tags:
  - osv
  - pip
epss: 0.02037
epssPercentile: 0.79977
ingestedAt: '2026-07-08T18:25:50.317Z'
---

## Overview

The libvirt driver in OpenStack Compute (Nova) before 2013.2.2 and icehouse before icehouse-2 allows remote authenticated users to cause a denial of service (disk consumption) by creating and deleting instances with unique os_type settings, which triggers the creation of a new ephemeral disk backing file.

## Affected packages

- `nova < 12.0.0a0`

## Remediation

Upgrade to a patched release:

- `nova 12.0.0a0`