{"id":"CVE-2025-54996","aliases":["GHSA-vf84-mxrq-crqc","BIT-openbao-2025-54996","GO-2025-3857"],"title":"OpenBao Root Namespace Operator May Elevate Token Privileges","summary":"OpenBao Root Namespace Operator May Elevate Token Privileges","severity":"high","cvss":7.2,"cvssVector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","vendor":"openbao","product":"github.com/openbao/openbao","ecosystem":"go","affected":["github.com/openbao/openbao >= 0.1.0, < 2.3.2","github.com/openbao/openbao < 0.0.0-20250806193240-9b0b5d4f345f"],"patched":["github.com/openbao/openbao 2.3.2","github.com/openbao/openbao 0.0.0-20250806193240-9b0b5d4f345f"],"published":"2025-08-08","updated":"2026-07-27","source":"OSV","sourceUrl":"https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-vf84-mxrq-crqc","references":[{"url":"https://github.com/openbao/openbao/security/advisories/GHSA-vf84-mxrq-crqc"},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-54996"},{"url":"https://github.com/openbao/openbao/pull/1627"},{"url":"https://github.com/openbao/openbao/commit/9b0b5d4f345fdfb1065956f042b12cbd86cd6e0f"},{"url":"https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2025-13-vault-root-namespace-operator-may-elevate-token-privileges/76032"},{"url":"https://github.com/openbao/openbao"},{"url":"https://github.com/openbao/openbao/releases/tag/v2.3.2"},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/cve-2025-5999"}],"tags":["osv","go"],"epss":0.00308,"epssPercentile":0.20993,"ingestedAt":"2026-07-27T19:08:55.174Z","slug":"CVE-2025-54996","body":"## Overview\n\n### Impact\n\nAccounts 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.\n\n### Patches\n\nOpenBao v2.3.2 will patch this issue.\n\n### Workarounds\n\nUse of `denied_parameters` in any policy which has access to the affected identity endpoints (on [identity entities](https://openbao.org/api-docs/secret/identity/entity/)) may be sufficient to prohibit this type of attack. \n\n### References\n\nThis issue was disclosed to HashiCorp and is the OpenBao equivalent of the following tickets:\n\n- https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2025-13-vault-root-namespace-operator-may-elevate-token-privileges/76032\n- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/cve-2025-5999\n\n## Affected packages\n\n- `github.com/openbao/openbao >= 0.1.0, < 2.3.2`\n- `github.com/openbao/openbao < 0.0.0-20250806193240-9b0b5d4f345f`\n\n## Remediation\n\nUpgrade to a patched release:\n\n- `github.com/openbao/openbao 2.3.2`\n- `github.com/openbao/openbao 0.0.0-20250806193240-9b0b5d4f345f`","depth":"twilight","depthScore":40,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":39.6,"likelihood":0.1,"exploitation":0,"ransomware":0},"changes":[]}