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7.5
HIGH CVSS 3.1
CVE-2025-12044
Vault Vulnerable to Denial of Service Due to Rate Limit Regression
Description

Vault and Vault Enterprise (“Vault”) are vulnerable to an unauthenticated denial of service when processing JSON payloads. This occurs due to a regression from a previous fix for [+HCSEC-2025-24+|https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2025-24-vault-denial-of-service-though-complex-json-payloads/76393]  which allowed for processing JSON payloads before applying rate limits. This vulnerability, CVE-2025-12044, is fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.21.0 and Vault Enterprise 1.16.27, 1.19.11, 1.20.5, and 1.21.0.

INFO

Published Date :

Oct. 23, 2025, 8:15 p.m.

Last Modified :

Oct. 23, 2025, 8:15 p.m.

Remotely Exploit :

No

Source :

[email protected]
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2025-12044 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

ID Vendor Product Action
1 Hashicorp vault
: Total Affected Vendor : 1 | Products : 1
CVSS Scores
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardized framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and displays CVSS scores from various sources for each CVE.
Score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Source
CVSS 3.1 HIGH 67fedba0-ff2e-4543-ba5b-aa93e87718cc
CVSS 3.1 HIGH [email protected]
Solution
Update Vault to a fixed version to prevent denial of service from malformed JSON.
  • Update Vault Community Edition to 1.21.0.
  • Update Vault Enterprise to 1.16.27, 1.19.11, 1.20.5, or 1.21.0.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to CVE-2025-12044.

URL Resource
https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2025-31-vault-vulnerable-to-denial-of-service-due-to-rate-limit-regression/76710
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2025-12044 is associated with the following CWEs:

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2025-12044 weaknesses.

CAPEC-125: Flooding Flooding CAPEC-130: Excessive Allocation Excessive Allocation CAPEC-147: XML Ping of the Death XML Ping of the Death CAPEC-197: Exponential Data Expansion Exponential Data Expansion CAPEC-229: Serialized Data Parameter Blowup Serialized Data Parameter Blowup CAPEC-230: Serialized Data with Nested Payloads Serialized Data with Nested Payloads CAPEC-231: Oversized Serialized Data Payloads Oversized Serialized Data Payloads CAPEC-469: HTTP DoS HTTP DoS CAPEC-482: TCP Flood TCP Flood CAPEC-486: UDP Flood UDP Flood CAPEC-487: ICMP Flood ICMP Flood CAPEC-488: HTTP Flood HTTP Flood CAPEC-489: SSL Flood SSL Flood CAPEC-490: Amplification Amplification CAPEC-491: Quadratic Data Expansion Quadratic Data Expansion CAPEC-493: SOAP Array Blowup SOAP Array Blowup CAPEC-494: TCP Fragmentation TCP Fragmentation CAPEC-495: UDP Fragmentation UDP Fragmentation CAPEC-496: ICMP Fragmentation ICMP Fragmentation CAPEC-528: XML Flood XML Flood

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2025-12044 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

Results are limited to the first 20 news articles due to potential performance issues.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2025-12044 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • New CVE Received by [email protected]

    Oct. 23, 2025

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added Description Vault and Vault Enterprise (“Vault”) are vulnerable to an unauthenticated denial of service when processing JSON payloads. This occurs due to a regression from a previous fix for [+HCSEC-2025-24+|https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2025-24-vault-denial-of-service-though-complex-json-payloads/76393]  which allowed for processing JSON payloads before applying rate limits. This vulnerability, CVE-2025-12044, is fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.21.0 and Vault Enterprise 1.16.27, 1.19.11, 1.20.5, and 1.21.0.
    Added CVSS V3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
    Added CWE CWE-770
    Added Reference https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2025-31-vault-vulnerable-to-denial-of-service-due-to-rate-limit-regression/76710
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.
Vulnerability Scoring Details
Base CVSS Score: 7.5
Attack Vector
Attack Complexity
Privileges Required
User Interaction
Scope
Confidentiality Impact
Integrity Impact
Availability Impact