dbcve.org
VaultApplication · Hashicorp

CVE-2023-4680

MEDIUM · 6.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-09-15
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.12.11 / 1.13.7 or later.
See remediation →
74/100
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 transit secrets engine allowed authorized users to specify arbitrary nonces, even with convergent encryption disabled. The encrypt endpoint, in combination with an offline attack, could be used to decrypt arbitrary ciphertext and potentially derive the authentication subkey when using transit secrets engine without convergent encryption. Introduced in 1.6.0 and fixed in 1.14.3, 1.13.7, and 1.12.11.

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

The transit secrets engine in HashiCorp Vault allowed authorized users to specify arbitrary nonces even when convergent encryption was disabled. This improper nonce handling, combined with an offline attack vector, could be exploited to decrypt arbitrary ciphertext and potentially derive the authentication subkey.

MitigationUpgrade Vault to version 1.14.3, 1.13.7, 1.12.11 or later to patch the vulnerable nonce handling in the transit secrets engine.

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:>= 1.6.0, < 1.12.11>= 1.13.0, < 1.13.7>= 1.14.0, < 1.14.3

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

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/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 installed Vault version
    Run `vault version` or check the Vault process binary version
    Affected if The version falls within >= 1.6.0 and < 1.12.11, OR >= 1.13.0 and < 1.13.7, OR >= 1.14.0 and < 1.14.3
  2. Verify transit secrets engine is enabled
    Run `vault secrets list` and look for a path with type `transit`, or query the sys/mounts API endpoint
    Affected if A transit secrets engine mount is present and enabled in the Vault configuration
  3. List active transit encryption keys
    Run `vault list transit/keys` for each transit mount path (e.g., `vault list transit/keys` if mounted at root, or `vault list <mount-path>/keys` if custom)
    Affected if One or more transit encryption keys exist in any transit mount
  4. Confirm key configuration state
    Run `vault read transit/keys/<key-name>` for each key to inspect the `convergent_encryption` and `derived` fields, or use the API GET /transit/keys/{key}
    Affected if The vulnerability applies regardless of convergent_encryption setting, but any configured transit keys indicate the affected code path is in use

You are affected if your Vault version is in the vulnerable range AND the transit secrets engine is enabled with at least one encryption key configured.

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 1.12.11 / 1.13.7 / 1.14.3 or later
Fixed in 1.12.111.13.71.14.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Vault to version 1.14.3, 1.13.7, 1.12.11 or later to patch the vulnerable nonce handling in the transit secrets engine.

Recommended fix High confidence

1.14.3 (or 1.13.7 for 1.13.x, or 1.12.11 for 1.12.x)

  1. 1. Identify the current Vault version by running `vault version` or checking the UI
  2. 2. Determine which upgrade path is appropriate based on your current version (1.12.x -> 1.12.11, 1.13.x -> 1.13.7, or 1.14.x -> 1.14.3)
  3. 3. Review HashiCorp's official upgrade guide at https://developer.hashicorp.com/vault/docs/upgrading
  4. 4. Take a snapshot/backup of your Vault data
  5. 5. Test the upgrade in a non-production environment first
  6. 6. Schedule a maintenance window for the production upgrade
  7. 7. Upgrade Vault to the fixed version (1.14.3 recommended for latest stable)
  8. 8. Verify the upgrade was successful by running `vault version`
Caveat Standard Vault upgrade considerations apply - review release notes for any behavior changes between your current version and the target fixed version

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
Get the upgrade done

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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-2023-4680 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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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