CVE-2018-16848: Mistral Denial of Service Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-443j-6p7g-6v4w
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CVSS 6.5
CWE-400
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2018-16848 is a HIGH (CVSS 6.5) denial of service vulnerability (CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption) affecting Mistral libraries in the PyPI ecosystem. The issue involves openstack mistral dos. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 10.0.0.

CVE-2018-16848 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2018-16848
GHSA Identifier GHSA-443j-6p7g-6v4w
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 6.5
CWE Classification CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
Affected Product Mistral
Package Ecosystem PyPI
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 6.5

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H).

Attack Vector Network (AV:N)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required Low (PR:L)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Unchanged (S:U)
Confidentiality None (C:N)
Integrity None (I:N)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2018-16848

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Mistral dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

mistral fixed: 10.0.0 
pip install mistral>=10.0.0
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

pip show mistral

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your Python environment is affected by CVE-2018-16848, inspect your installed packages using pip:

pip show mistral

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Mistral in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 10.0.0), your application is affected.

Note: The pip show mistral command checks currently installed packages in your active Python environment.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption, where the product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource. In Mistral, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

A Denial of Service (DoS) condition is possible in OpenStack Mistral in versions up to and including 7.0.3. Submitting a specially crafted workflow definition YAML file containing nested anchors can lead to resource exhaustion culminating in a denial of service.

CVE-2018-16848 Affected Mistral Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
10.0.0
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
mistral
pypi/mistral
PyPI
< 10.0.0
10.0.0

References

NVD — CVE-2018-16848 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-16848
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/openstack/mistral/commit/eac23d9e774f658f9d4743c99aa2743eb104c3f9
bugs.launchpad.net/mistral/+bug/178565... WEB
https://bugs.launchpad.net/mistral/+bug/1785657
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi WEB
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1645332
Mistral Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/openstack/mistral
Mistral Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/mistral/PYSEC-2020-240.yaml

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2018-16848?
CVE-2018-16848 is a security vulnerability in Mistral involving OpenStack Mistral DoS under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption.
Which Mistral versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 10.0.0 across affected packages: mistral.
What version fixes CVE-2018-16848?
Upgrading to 10.0.0 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is mistral affected?
Yes, mistral is affected in releases prior to 10.0.0. Upgrade your dependency to 10.0.0 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2018-16848?
CVE-2018-16848 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 6.5 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2018-16848?
CVE-2018-16848 is classified under CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption (The product does not properly control the allocation and maintenance of a limited resource.).
How can I check PyPI dependencies for CVE-2018-16848?
Run the dependency tree command: 'pip show mistral'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-443j-6p7g-6v4w",
  "modified" : "2024-09-25T20:28:04Z",
  "published" : "2022-05-24T17:20:25Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2018-16848" ],
  "summary" : "OpenStack Mistral DoS",
  "details" : "A Denial of Service (DoS) condition is possible in OpenStack Mistral in versions up to and including 7.0.3. Submitting a specially crafted workflow definition YAML file containing nested anchors can lead to resource exhaustion culminating in a denial of service.",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H"
  }, {
    "type" : "CVSS_V4",
    "score" : "CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "PyPI",
      "name" : "mistral"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "10.0.0"
      } ]
    } ]
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-16848"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/openstack/mistral/commit/eac23d9e774f658f9d4743c99aa2743eb104c3f9"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://bugs.launchpad.net/mistral/+bug/1785657"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1645332"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/openstack/mistral"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/pypa/advisory-database/tree/main/vulns/mistral/PYSEC-2020-240.yaml"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-400" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2023-07-19T23:24:06Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2020-06-15T15:15:00Z"
  }
}