CVE-2016-2140

The libvirt driver in OpenStack Compute (Nova) before 2015.1.4 (kilo) and 12.0.x before 12.0.3 (liberty), when using raw storage and use_cow_images is set to false, allows remote authenticated users to read arbitrary files via a crafted qcow2 header in an ephemeral or root disk.

Published: 2016-04-12 Last update: 2026-05-06 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2016-2140 is rated Moderate Risk (50.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 2.09%). EPSS rose +1.75% over the last day, indicating growing attacker interest. Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2016-2140

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.34% 2.09% +1.75%
2 2026-05-24 0.63% 0.34% -0.30%
3 2025-07-25 — 0.63% —

Full EPSS history (10 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2016-2140

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.3 3.0 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.6 3.6 [email protected]
3.5 2.0 LOW
AV:N/AC:M/Au:S/C:P/I:N/A:N Click to expand
Access vector (AV:N)
Can be exploited remotely over network reachability.
Access complexity (AC:M)
Exploitation needs some favorable conditions, but not exceptional ones.
Authentication (AU:S)
A single authentication is required.
Confidentiality impact (C:P)
Partial confidentiality impact.
Integrity impact (I:N)
No integrity impact.
Availability impact (A:N)
No availability impact.
 6.8 2.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2016-2140

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2016-2140

GHSA-49jv-37hm-6gfp · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: pip — OpenStack Nova host data access through resize/migration

OS Trackers for CVE-2016-2140

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2016-2140 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (nova), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2016-2140
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-2140
suse medium CVE-2016-2140 severity moderate: SUSE including 81 source package names (openstack-ceilometer-5.0.4~a0~dev6-6.1, openstack-ceilometer-agent-central-5.0.4~a0~dev6-6.1, …), 82 product×package rows across 3 product lines (SUSE Cloud 5, SUSE Cloud for SLE 12 Compute Nodes, SUSE OpenStack Cloud 6): Fixed 80, Known Not Affected 2. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2016-2140/
ubuntu low CVE-2016-2140 low priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (nova), 7 status rows across 7 suites (precise, trusty, upstream, wily, xenial, yakkety, zesty): not-affected 4, ignored 1, needs-triage 1, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2016-2140

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2016-2140

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
openstack nova >= 12.0.0, < 12.0.3 cpe:2.3:a:openstack:nova:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
openstack nova >= 2015.1.0, < 2015.1.4 cpe:2.3:a:openstack:nova:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2016-2140

cvelogic Threat Intelligence