The vulnerability stems from improper cleanup during instance deletion while in resize state. The key vulnerable function is ComputeManager.terminate_instance which handled local host cleanup but didn't account for residual files on the original resize source host. The API delete controller initiated the deletion flow without proper state validation for resize operations. The fix introduced a periodic cleanup task ('_cleanup_incomplete_migrations') demonstrating that the original termination path lacked this critical cleanup logic. These functions would appear in profiler stacks during exploitation as the attack involves triggering deletion API calls while resize operations are in progress.
| Package Name | Ecosystem | Vulnerable Versions | First Patched Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| nova | pip | < 2014.2.4 | 2014.2.4 |
| nova | pip | >= 2015.1.0, < 2015.1.2 | 2015.1.2 |
A Semantic Attack on Google Gemini - Read the Latest Research