Skip to content
Log inStart free trial

GHSA-hh28-h22f-8357 BIT-openbao-2025-54999 CVE-2025-54999 GO-2025-3854

OpenBao has a Timing Side-Channel in the Userpass Auth Method

Low Go
Severity
3.7 / 10
Low · CVSS 3.1
Exploit chance (EPSS)
0.21%
Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 11.58% of scored vulnerabilities.
Known exploited
No
Not in CISA's catalog
Weakness
CWE-203 Observable Discrepancy
Fix
2.3.2
Upgrade github.com/openbao/openbao to this version or later

Description

Impact

When using OpenBao's userpass auth method, user enumeration was possible due to timing difference between non-existent users and users with stored credentials. This is independent of whether the supplied credentials were valid for the given user.

Patches

OpenBao v2.3.2 will patch this issue.

Workarounds

Users may use another auth method or apply rate limiting quotas to limit the number of requests in a period of time: https://openbao.org/api-docs/system/rate-limit-quotas/

References

This issue was disclosed to HashiCorp and is the OpenBao equivalent of the following tickets:

Barring further information, this is also assumed to cover and remediate the following additional vulnerability:

If this is not the case as further details emerge, a new CVE will be assigned for remediating that. Otherwise, no further CVE will be sought.

Affected versions

Go

PackageVulnerableFixed in
github.com/openbao/openbao
>= 0.1.0, < 2.3.2
2.3.2
github.com/openbao/openbao
< 0.0.0-20250806193356-4d9b5d3d6486
0.0.0-20250806193356-4d9b5d3d6486
github.com/openbao/openbao
< 0.0.0-20250806193356-4d9b5d3d6486
>= 0.1.0
0.0.0-20250806193356-4d9b5d3d6486

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/openbao/openbao Go → 2.3.2

go
go get github.com/openbao/openbao@v2.3.2 && go mod tidy

Severity breakdown

CVSS 3.1 3.7

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

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

Weakness

CWE-203: Observable Discrepancy

The product behaves differently or sends different responses under different circumstances in a way that is observable to an unauthorized actor.

How to prevent it
  • Architecture and Design: Compartmentalize the system to have "safe" areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area. Ensure that appropriate compartmentalization is built into the system design, and the compartmentalization allows for and reinforces privilege separation functionality. Architects and designers should rely on the principle of least privilege to decide the appropriate time to use privileges and the time to drop privileges.
  • Implementation: Ensure that error messages only contain minimal details that are useful to the intended audience and no one else. The messages need to strike the balance between being too cryptic (which can confuse users) or being too detailed (which may reveal more than intended). The messages should not reveal the methods that were used to determine the error. Attackers can use detailed information to refine or optimize their original attack, thereby increasing their chances of success. If errors must be captured in some detail, record them in log messages, but consider what could occur if the log messages can be viewed by attackers. Highly sensitive information such as passwords should never be saved to log files. Avoid inconsistent messaging that might accidentally tip off an attacker about internal state, such as whether a user account exists or not.

References

Advisories

Packages

Other links

Timeline

  1. Published
  2. Last updated by the source
  3. Latest EPSS score
AdvisorySeverityWhy it's related
GHSA-xp3c-3jw3-4vcr
OpenBao Skips Stricter Deny Policy for LIST operations
Medium Also affects github.com/openbao/openbao
GHSA-34fc-gh42-pj53
OpenBao's Recovery Mode Vulnerable To Token Leakage via Timing Attack
Critical Also affects github.com/openbao/openbao
GHSA-444v-8vxr-p36h
OpenBao Agent Writes Secrets to Stdout
Low Also affects github.com/openbao/openbao
GHSA-59w7-v8rr-pr4p
OpenBao's Templated Policies Allow Privilege Escalation via Wildcard Characters
High Also affects github.com/openbao/openbao
GHSA-8w8f-r2xv-4q4j
OpenBao: Transit secrets engine crashes on key creation with `derived: true` for asymmetric key types
Medium Also affects github.com/openbao/openbao
GHSA-mwr2-wmgp-crj6
OpenBao's System Backend allows Unauthorized Management of the containing Namespace
Low Also affects github.com/openbao/openbao
GHSA-c36x-h252-g9x2
OpenBao: Cross-namespace lease revocation/renewal via canonical sys/leases/{revoke,renew} — incomplete fix of CVE-2026-45808
Low Also affects github.com/openbao/openbao
GHSA-6mwx-4547-5vc9
OpenBao: LDAPi ldaputil (wrong escape func)
Medium Also affects github.com/openbao/openbao
Is this in your code?

MergeHarbor checks every repository's dependencies against this database, ranks what matters by exploitability and reachability, routes it to the owning team and opens the fix pull request.

Check your repos with MergeHarbor