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VaultApplication · Hashicorp

CVE-2022-40186

CRITICAL · 9.1 CVSS v3.1 Published 2022-09-22
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.9.9 / 1.10.6 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
An issue was discovered in HashiCorp Vault and Vault Enterprise before 1.11.3. A vulnerability in the Identity Engine was found where, in a deployment where an entity has multiple mount accessors with shared alias names, Vault may overwrite metadata to the wrong alias due to an issue with checking the proper alias assigned to an entity. This may allow for unintended access to key/value paths using that metadata in Vault.

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 vulnerability in HashiCorp Vault's Identity Engine allows metadata to be written to the wrong alias when an entity has multiple mount accessors with shared alias names. The improper alias assignment checking causes metadata corruption across aliases, potentially granting unintended access to key/value paths.

MitigationUpgrade to Vault or Vault Enterprise version 1.11.3 or later to resolve the Identity Engine alias assignment flaw.

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:>= 1.8.0, < 1.9.9>= 1.10.0, < 1.10.6>= 1.11.0, < 1.11.3

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
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 Vault server version
    Run `vault version` on the Vault server or query the `/v1/sys/health` API endpoint. Compare the version to the affected ranges: 1.8.0 to 1.9.8, 1.10.0 to 1.10.5, or 1.11.0 to 1.11.2.
    Affected if The installed version falls within any of the affected version ranges.
  2. Identify entities with multiple mount accessors
    Query the identity/entities endpoint using `vault list identity/entity/id` to retrieve all entity IDs, then for each entity run `vault read identity/entity/id/<entity_id>` to inspect the alias_mount_accessor field.
    Affected if An entity has multiple aliases associated with different mount accessors.
  3. Check for shared alias names across mount accessors
    For each entity with multiple aliases, examine the alias_name values. Look for entities where the same alias_name appears on multiple mount_accessor values.
    Affected if Any entity contains alias_name values that repeat across different mount_accessor values.
  4. Verify metadata integrity across aliases
    Query metadata for affected entities using the identity/entity-alias/id endpoint or the sys/mounts accessor endpoint. Compare metadata between aliases that share names.
    Affected if Metadata assigned to one alias appears unexpectedly on a different alias with the same name.

You are affected if your Vault version is in the vulnerable range AND you have entities with multiple aliases where the same alias name exists across different 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 1.9.9 / 1.10.6 / 1.11.3 or later
Fixed in 1.9.91.10.61.11.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Vault or Vault Enterprise version 1.11.3 or later to resolve the Identity Engine alias assignment flaw.

Recommended fix High confidence

Vault 1.11.3 or later (or 1.10.6+, 1.9.9+ depending on current branch)

  1. 1. Identify current Vault version by running `vault version`
  2. 2. Plan maintenance window as upgrade requires restart
  3. 3. Back up Vault data and configuration files
  4. 4. For Vault versions 1.8.x to 1.9.x: upgrade to 1.9.9 or later (recommended: latest 1.9.x release)
  5. 5. For Vault version 1.10.x: upgrade to 1.10.6 or later (recommended: latest 1.10.x release)
  6. 6. For Vault version 1.11.x: upgrade to 1.11.3 or later (recommended: latest 1.11.x release)
  7. 7. Download appropriate installer from https://www.vaultproject.io/downloads
  8. 8. Stop Vault service
Caveat Minor: Standard upgrade procedure; review release notes for any behavior changes in Identity entity alias handling

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

Fix this in Vault Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,200
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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-2022-40186 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