OSSN-0079: Ceph credentials included in logs using older versions of libvirt/qemu

Summary

Older versions of libvirt included network storage authentication information on the qemu command line. If libvirt raises an exception which logs the qemu command line it used, for example an error starting a domain, this authentication information will available in the logs.

Affected Services / Software

Versions 2.5 and earlier of QEMU and libvirt versions of 2.1 or ealier.

The issue has been resolved in all QEMU versions 2.6 and above and libvirt 2.2 and above.

No patches or specific releases of Nova or Ceph are required, the issue is completely resolved in QEMU and libvirt.

Discussion

If a deployment is using ceph, a libvirt error starting a domain would log the cephx secret key and the monitor addresses on the qemu command line.

A local attacker could then use this flaw to gain access of the cephx secret key and perform certain privileged operations within the cluster.

An existing CVE is already present for this issue [1].

Contacts / References

Author: Luke Hinds, Red Hat