Glance allows non-admin users to create public images
---

### Summary ###
The default policy settings in Glance allow any user to upload an image
that is publicly available to all users. This can allow a malicious user
to upload a vulnerable image that other users may use, unknowingly
exposing themselves to attack.

### Affected Services / Software ###
Glance, Folsom, Grizzly, Havana, Icehouse

### Discussion ###
When uploading an image to Glance, the user performing the upload is
able to mark the image as public. This allows all other users to see and
use the image when they create new instances. The ability to share
images with all users within an OpenStack deployment is very useful, but
it can potentially be abused for malicious purposes. For example, an
image can be uploaded that contains a backdoor that allows the attacker
to have unauthorized access to instances that are created from that
image.

Glance does allow for the ability to publicize images to be controlled
by policy. However, the default policy setting allows all users to
publicize images.

### Recommended Actions ###
It is recommended that the ability to publicize images in Glance be
restricted to trusted users, such as users with the "admin" role. This
can be done by modifying the "publicize_image" capability in Glance's
policy.json file. Here is an example of restricting this capability to
users with the "admin" role:

---- begin example policy.json snippet ----
"publicize_image": "role:admin",
---- end example policy.json snippet ----

The default policy setting in Glance is planned to be changed to
restrict the ability to publicize images to users with the "admin" role
in the Juno release of OpenStack.

### Contacts / References ###
Author: Nathan Kinder, Red Hat
This OSSN : https://wiki.openstack.org/wiki/OSSN/OSSN-0015
Original LaunchPad Bug : https://bugs.launchpad.net/glance/+bug/1313746
OpenStack Security ML : openstack-security@lists.openstack.org
OpenStack Security Group : https://launchpad.net/~openstack-ossg