CVE-2025-54996: openbao Privilege Escalation — Fix

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.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

7.2

HIGH

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-269 CWE-269

Affected Products

Vendor	Product	Versions
openbao	openbao	< 2.3.2

References

Advisories & Patches

https://github.com/openbao/openbao/security/advisories/GHSA-vf84-mxrq-crqc

Other References

https://github.com/openbao/openbao/pull/1627 https://github.com/openbao/openbao/releases/tag/v2.3.2

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2025-54996? +

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. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.2 (HIGH).

How severe is CVE-2025-54996? +

CVE-2025-54996 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 7.2 out of 10, rated HIGH. This is a high-severity vulnerability that should be prioritized for patching.

What products are affected by CVE-2025-54996? +

CVE-2025-54996 affects products from openbao, specifically: openbao. Check the affected products table above for specific version ranges.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2025-54996? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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