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OpenBao Root Namespace Operator May Elevate Token Privileges

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Aug 8, 2025 in openbao/openbao • Updated Aug 11, 2025

Package

gomod github.com/openbao/openbao (Go)

Affected versions

>= 0.1.0, < 2.3.2
< 0.0.0-20250806193240-9b0b5d4f345f

Patched versions

2.3.2
0.0.0-20250806193240-9b0b5d4f345f

Description

Impact

Accounts with access to the highly-privileged identity entity system in the root namespace may increase their scope directly to the root policy. While the identity system always allowed adding arbitrary policies, which in turn could contain capability grants on arbitrary paths, the root policy is restricted to manual generation using unseal or recovery key shares. The global root policy is not accessible from child namespaces.

Patches

OpenBao v2.3.2 will patch this issue.

Workarounds

Use of denied_parameters in any policy which has access to the affected identity endpoints (on identity entities) may be sufficient to prohibit this type of attack.

References

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

References

@cipherboy cipherboy published to openbao/openbao Aug 8, 2025
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Aug 8, 2025
Reviewed Aug 8, 2025
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Aug 9, 2025
Last updated Aug 11, 2025

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

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

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(3rd percentile)

Weaknesses

Incorrect Privilege Assignment

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

Improper Privilege Management

The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2025-54996

GHSA ID

GHSA-vf84-mxrq-crqc

Source code

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