Executive brief
OpenStack Ironic, a service for managing bare metal hardware, contains a vulnerability that could allow an authorized user to execute unauthorized commands on the management server. This occurs when specific console interfaces (shellinabox or socat) are enabled, allowing a user with 'node owner' privileges to compromise the underlying host during console activation. While this requires high privileges and a non-default configuration, it could lead to full control over the infrastructure management layer.
Technical details
A command injection vulnerability exists in OpenStack Ironic's IPMI console backends (ipmitool-shellinabox and ipmitool-socat). The root cause is the improper sanitization of driver_info fields (such as ipmi_address) which are concatenated into a command string and passed to socat's EXEC or shellinaboxd without adequate shell escaping. An attacker with 'node.owner' or 'system member' privileges can inject shell metacharacters into these fields. When the console is subsequently activated, the injected commands are executed with the privileges of the ironic-conductor process. The vulnerability is only present in non-default configurations where these specific console interfaces are enabled. Patches have been released across multiple release branches including Dalmatian, Epoxy, Flamingo, and Gazpacho.
Affected products
- OpenStack Ironic >=4.3.0 <26.1.6, >=27.0.0 <29.0.5, >=30.0.0 <32.0.1, >=33.0.0 <35.0.1
Timeline
- 2026-04-14: other: Vulnerability reported to OpenStack via Launchpad
- 2026-04-27: advisory: Original OSSA-2026-008 advisory published
- 2026-04-28: disclosed: Public disclosure and CVE assignment
- 2026-04-29: patched: Patches released for supported branches