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GHSA-6h4p-m86h-hhgh BIT-vault-2025-5999 CVE-2025-5999 GO-2025-3837

Hashicorp Vault has Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

High Go
Severity
7.2 / 10
High · CVSS 3.1
Exploit chance (EPSS)
0.51%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 43.60% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited
No
Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness
CWE-266 Incorrect Privilege Assignment
Fix
1.20.0
Upgrade github.com/hashicorp/vault to this version or later

Description

A privileged Vault operator with write permissions to the root namespace’s identity endpoint could escalate their own or another user’s token privileges to Vault’s root policy. Fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.20.0 and Vault Enterprise 1.20.0, 1.19.6, 1.18.11 and 1.16.22.

Affected versions

Go

PackageVulnerableFixed in
github.com/hashicorp/vault
>= 0.10.4, < 1.20.0
1.20.0

How to fix

Move to the fixed version or later with your package manager, update the lockfile, and run your tests. If the package only arrives through another dependency, upgrade that dependency first. If none of its releases pulls a fixed version yet, force the version with your package manager's override.

github.com/hashicorp/vault Go → 1.20.0

go
go get github.com/hashicorp/vault@v1.20.0 && go mod tidy

Severity breakdown

CVSS 3.1 7.2

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Weakness

CWE-266: Incorrect Privilege Assignment

A product incorrectly assigns a privilege to a particular actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.

How to prevent it
  • Architecture and Design, Operation: Very carefully manage the setting, management, and handling of privileges. Explicitly manage trust zones in the software.
  • Architecture and Design, Operation: Run your code using the lowest privileges that are required to accomplish the necessary tasks [REF-76]. If possible, create isolated accounts with limited privileges that are only used for a single task. That way, a successful attack will not immediately give the attacker access to the rest of the software or its environment. For example, database applications rarely need to run as the database administrator, especially in day-to-day operations.

References

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. Last updated by the source
  3. Latest EPSS score
AdvisorySeverityWhy it's related
GHSA-88v5-9hxc-f85r
HashiCorp Vault Vulnerable to Denial-of-Service via Unauthenticated Root Token Generation/Rekey Operations
High Also affects github.com/hashicorp/vault
GHSA-8r5m-3f66-qpr3
HashiCorp Vault has Server-Side Request Forgery in ACME Challenge Validation via Attacker-Controlled DNS
High Also affects github.com/hashicorp/vault
GHSA-72gw-fmmr-c4r4
HashiCorp Vault May Expose Tokens to Auth Plugins Due to Incorrect Header Sanitization
High Also affects github.com/hashicorp/vault
GHSA-m2w4-8ggf-rj47
HashiCorp Vault has a KVv2 Metadata and Secret Deletion Policy Bypass that leads to Denial-of-Service
High Also affects github.com/hashicorp/vault
GHSA-vp5w-xcfc-73wf
Hashicorp Vault and Vault Enterprise vulnerable to a denial of service when processing JSON
High Also affects github.com/hashicorp/vault
GHSA-9g4h-h484-3578
HashiCorp Vault and Vault Enterprise's AWS Auth method may be susceptible to authentication bypass
High Also affects github.com/hashicorp/vault
GHSA-8f82-53h8-2p34
HashiCorp Vault Community Edition Denial of Service Though Complex JSON Payloads
High Also affects github.com/hashicorp/vault
GHSA-7rx2-769v-hrwf
HashiCorp Vault ldap auth method may not have correctly enforced MFA
High Also affects github.com/hashicorp/vault
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