Authenticated constraint bypass via internal scheduler hints
Published Jun 16, 2026 · Updated Jun 16, 2026
Scheduler-hint injection in affected OpenStack Nova releases allows remote authenticated users to bypass Placement resource claims. The server create API accepts internal _nova-prefixed scheduler hints from client requests instead of stripping them before candidate selection and request pre-filters. A tenant account is required; crafted hints can create instances without Placement allocations, exhaust compute resources, evade host constraints, and leave cross-tenant data on NVMe devices after deletion.
Summary
What happened
Scheduler-hint injection in affected OpenStack Nova releases allows remote authenticated users to bypass Placement resource claims. The server create API accepts internal _nova-prefixed scheduler hints from client requests instead of stripping them before candidate selection and request pre-filters. A tenant account is required; crafted hints can create instances without Placement allocations, exhaust compute resources, evade host constraints, and leave cross-tenant data on NVMe devices after deletion.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-46448
- Published
- Jun 16, 2026
- Updated
- Jun 16, 2026
- Vendor
- OpenStack
- Product
- Nova
- Classifications
- CWE-669, T1496
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Jun 16, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Jun 16, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=18.0.0 <31.3.1
- Affected versionversion=32.0.0 <32.2.1
- Affected versionversion=33.0.0 <33.0.2
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
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Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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