GHSA-mwgr-84fv-3jh9 BIT-vault-2025-6011 CVE-2025-6011 GO-2025-3839
Hashicorp Vault has an Observable Discrepancy on Existing and Non-Existing Users
- Severity
- 3.7 / 10
- Low · CVSS 3.1
- Exploit chance (EPSS)
- 0.36%
- Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days. Higher than 29.38% of scored vulnerabilities.
- Known exploited
- No
- Not in CISA's catalog
- Weakness
- CWE-203 Observable Discrepancy
- Fix
1.20.1- Upgrade github.com/hashicorp/vault to this version or later
Description
A timing side channel in Vault and Vault Enterprise’s (“Vault”) userpass auth method allowed an attacker to distinguish between existing and non-existing users, and potentially enumerate valid usernames for Vault’s Userpass auth method. Fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.20.1 and Vault Enterprise 1.20.1, 1.19.7, 1.18.12, and 1.16.23.
Affected versions
Go
| Package | Vulnerable | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| github.com/hashicorp/vault | < 1.20.1 |
1.20.1 |
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 → 1.20.1
- go
go get github.com/hashicorp/vault@v1.20.1 && 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
- Published
- Last updated by the source
- Latest EPSS score
Related advisories
| Advisory | Severity | Why 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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