CVE-2025-54996
OpenBao Identity Escalation Privilege Vulnerability
Description
OpenBao exists to provide a software solution to manage, store, and distribute sensitive data including secrets, certificates, and keys. In versions 2.3.1 and below, accounts with access to highly-privileged identity entity systems in root namespaces were able to increase their scope directly to the root policy. While the identity system allowed adding arbitrary policies, which in turn could contain capability grants on arbitrary paths, the root policy was restricted to manual generation using unseal or recovery key shares. The global root policy was not accessible from child namespaces. This issue is fixed in version 2.3.2. To workaround this vulnerability, 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.
INFO
Published Date :
Aug. 9, 2025, 2:15 a.m.
Last Modified :
Aug. 12, 2025, 8:51 p.m.
Source :
[email protected]
Remotely Exploitable :
Yes !
Impact Score :
5.9
Exploitability Score :
1.2
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-2025-54996.
| URL | Resource |
|---|---|
| https://github.com/openbao/openbao/pull/1627 | Issue Tracking |
| https://github.com/openbao/openbao/releases/tag/v2.3.2 | Release Notes |
| https://github.com/openbao/openbao/security/advisories/GHSA-vf84-mxrq-crqc | Vendor Advisory |
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-2025-54996 vulnerability anywhere in the article.
The following table lists the changes that have been made to the
CVE-2025-54996 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.
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Initial Analysis by [email protected]
Aug. 12, 2025
Action Type Old Value New Value Added CPE Configuration OR *cpe:2.3:a:openbao:openbao:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* versions up to (excluding) 2.3.2 Added Reference Type GitHub, Inc.: https://github.com/openbao/openbao/pull/1627 Types: Issue Tracking Added Reference Type GitHub, Inc.: https://github.com/openbao/openbao/releases/tag/v2.3.2 Types: Release Notes Added Reference Type GitHub, Inc.: https://github.com/openbao/openbao/security/advisories/GHSA-vf84-mxrq-crqc Types: Vendor Advisory -
New CVE Received by [email protected]
Aug. 09, 2025
Action Type Old Value New Value Added Description OpenBao exists to provide a software solution to manage, store, and distribute sensitive data including secrets, certificates, and keys. In versions 2.3.1 and below, accounts with access to highly-privileged identity entity systems in root namespaces were able to increase their scope directly to the root policy. While the identity system allowed adding arbitrary policies, which in turn could contain capability grants on arbitrary paths, the root policy was restricted to manual generation using unseal or recovery key shares. The global root policy was not accessible from child namespaces. This issue is fixed in version 2.3.2. To workaround this vulnerability, 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. Added CVSS V3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Added CWE CWE-269 Added Reference https://github.com/openbao/openbao/pull/1627 Added Reference https://github.com/openbao/openbao/releases/tag/v2.3.2 Added Reference https://github.com/openbao/openbao/security/advisories/GHSA-vf84-mxrq-crqc
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies
specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or
weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2025-54996 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-2025-54996
weaknesses.