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VaultApplication · Hashicorp

CVE-2021-41802

MEDIUM · 5.4 CVSS v3.1 Published 2021-10-08
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.7.5 / 1.8.4 or later.
See remediation →
60/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
HashiCorp Vault and Vault Enterprise through 1.7.4 and 1.8.3 allowed a user with write permission to an entity alias ID sharing a mount accessor with another user to acquire this other user’s policies by merging their identities. Fixed in Vault and Vault Enterprise 1.7.5 and 1.8.4.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

A user with write permission to an entity alias ID that shares a mount accessor with another user can merge their identities, thereby acquiring the other user's policies. This identity merging vulnerability allows privilege escalation through the auth backend's entity alias handling.

MitigationUpgrade HashiCorp Vault to version 1.7.5, 1.8.4, or later to remediate the identity merging vulnerability.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
VaultApplication
Affected:< 1.7.5>= 1.8.0, < 1.8.4

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

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

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check your installed Vault version
    Run `vault status` or query the `/v1/sys/health` API endpoint. The version is displayed in the output under 'Vault Version' or in the API response as 'version'.
    Affected if The version is less than 1.7.5, or greater than or equal to 1.8.0 but less than 1.8.4.
  2. Identify auth methods using entity aliases
    Query the sys/auth endpoint with `curl -s http://$VAULT_ADDR/v1/sys/auth` (or using `vault auth list -detailed`) to list all mounted auth methods. Look for entries with 'local' set to false and identify their accessor values.
    Affected if Multiple auth methods are mounted and the identity/alias feature is in use, which is the default behavior for most auth backends.
  3. Check for users with entity alias write permissions
    Review Vault policies using `vault policy list` and `vault policy read <policy-name>` to identify any policies granting 'write' permissions to the 'identity/entity-alias' path.
    Affected if Any policy grants write access to identity/entity-alias paths, allowing a user to modify entity aliases.
  4. Verify mount accessor sharing
    Examine the entity-alias objects in the identity store by querying the API at `/v1/identity/entity-alias` or reviewing entity membership to determine if different users share the same mount accessor.
    Affected if Different entity IDs share the same mount accessor from an auth method, which is the typical configuration for users authenticating via the same auth backend.

You are affected if your Vault version is below 1.7.5 or between 1.8.0 and 1.8.4, and your environment uses auth methods that create entity aliases with shared mount accessors.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 1.7.5 / 1.8.4 or later
Fixed in 1.7.51.8.4
Interim mitigation

Upgrade HashiCorp Vault to version 1.7.5, 1.8.4, or later to remediate the identity merging vulnerability.

Recommended fix High confidence

Vault 1.7.5 (for 1.7.x) or Vault 1.8.4 (for 1.8.x)

  1. 1. Backup your Vault data and configuration. Run: `vault operator raft snapshot save backup.snap` for integrated storage, or ensure your storage backend has a recent backup.
  2. 2. Check your current Vault version by running: `vault version`
  3. 3. If running Vault 1.7.x, upgrade to version 1.7.5. If running Vault 1.8.x, upgrade to version 1.8.4.
  4. 4. For the upgrade, follow HashiCorp's standard upgrade procedure: stop the Vault server, replace the binary, verify integrity, then restart.
  5. 5. After upgrade, verify the version: `vault version`
  6. 6. Test that entity management works correctly and that the identity merging behavior is now properly restricted.
  7. 7. Review audit logs to check for any suspicious identity merges that may have occurred prior to patching.

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Vault Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,040
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2021-41802 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data