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.
                
            Metrics
Affected Vendors & Products
References
        History
                    Tue, 12 Aug 2025 21:00:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added | 
|---|---|---|
| First Time appeared | Openbao Openbao openbao | |
| CPEs | cpe:2.3:a:openbao:openbao:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | |
| Vendors & Products | Openbao Openbao openbao | 
Tue, 12 Aug 2025 12:15:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added | 
|---|---|---|
| First Time appeared | Openbao Project Openbao Project openbao | |
| Vendors & Products | Openbao Project Openbao Project openbao | 
Mon, 11 Aug 2025 14:15:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added | 
|---|---|---|
| Metrics | ssvc 
 | 
Sat, 09 Aug 2025 01:45:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values 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. | |
| Title | OpenBao Root Namespace Operator May Elevate Token Privileges | |
| Weaknesses | CWE-269 | |
| References |  | |
| Metrics | cvssV3_1 
 | 
 MITRE
                        MITRE
                    Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: GitHub_M
Published: 2025-08-09T01:32:09.953Z
Updated: 2025-08-11T13:53:47.409Z
Reserved: 2025-08-04T17:34:24.420Z
Link: CVE-2025-54996
 Vulnrichment
                        Vulnrichment
                    Updated: 2025-08-11T13:53:36.375Z
 NVD
                        NVD
                    Status : Analyzed
Published: 2025-08-09T02:15:37.887
Modified: 2025-08-12T20:51:06.020
Link: CVE-2025-54996
 Redhat
                        Redhat
                    No data.