Vulnerability · Published Aug 9, 2025 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2025-54996OpenBao Root Namespace Operator May Elevate Token Privileges
High 7.2
In plain English
A high-severity privilege mismanagement in openbao from openbao. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.4% (higher than 29% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official 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.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine:v3.22 | openbao | 2.3.2-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2025-54996 |
| Alpine:v3.23 | openbao | 2.3.2-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2025-54996 |
| Alpine:v3.24 | openbao | 2.3.2-r0 | ALPINE-CVE-2025-54996 |
| Go | github.com/openbao/openbao | 2.3.2 | GHSA-vf84-mxrq-crqc |
| Go | github.com/openbao/openbao | 0.0.0-20250806193240-9b0b5d4f345f | GHSA-vf84-mxrq-crqc |
| Go | github.com/openbao/openbao | 0.0.0-20250806193240-9b0b5d4f345f | GO-2025-3857 |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-269 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
- https://github.com/openbao/openbao/security/advisories/GHSA-vf84-mxrq-crqc x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/openbao/openbao/pull/1627 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/openbao/openbao/releases/tag/v2.3.2 x_refsource_MISC