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VaultApplication · Hashicorp

CVE-2023-5954

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-11-09
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.13.10 / 1.14.6 or later.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
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
HashiCorp Vault and Vault Enterprise inbound client requests triggering a policy check can lead to an unbounded consumption of memory. A large number of these requests may lead to denial-of-service. Fixed in Vault 1.15.2, 1.14.6, and 1.13.10.

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

HashiCorp Vault and Vault Enterprise suffer from a memory exhaustion vulnerability where inbound client requests triggering policy checks consume unbounded memory. An attacker can exploit this by sending a large volume of requests that invoke policy evaluation, leading to denial-of-service through memory exhaustion.

MitigationUpgrade Vault to version 1.15.2, 1.14.6, or 1.13.10 to patch the vulnerability. Consider implementing request rate limiting as a temporary mitigation while planning the upgrade.

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:>= 1.13.7, < 1.13.10>= 1.14.3, < 1.14.6>= 1.15.0, < 1.15.2

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

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

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. Identify the installed Vault version
    Execute 'vault version' on the Vault server CLI or query the /v1/sys/health API endpoint
    Affected if Version falls within 1.13.7 to 1.13.9, 1.14.3 to 1.14.5, or 1.15.0 to 1.15.1 (these are the vulnerable ranges)
  2. Confirm Vault edition
    Run 'vault version' to determine if running Vault Open Source or Vault Enterprise
    Affected if Both editions are affected by the same version ranges
  3. Review request volume
    Examine Vault audit logs or API access logs for patterns of high-volume authenticated requests
    Affected if Sustained high request volume that triggers policy evaluation could trigger the memory exhaustion condition
  4. Monitor memory behavior
    Use system monitoring tools (ps, top, cgroup memory stats) to observe Vault process memory usage over time
    Affected if Memory usage continues to grow without stabilizing during periods of active policy evaluation requests

The environment is affected if the running Vault version is any of the following: 1.13.7 through 1.13.9, 1.14.3 through 1.14.5, or 1.15.0 through 1.15.1

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 1.13.10 / 1.14.6 / 1.15.2 or later
Fixed in 1.13.101.14.61.15.2
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Vault to version 1.15.2, 1.14.6, or 1.13.10 to patch the vulnerability. Consider implementing request rate limiting as a temporary mitigation while planning the upgrade.

Recommended fix High confidence

Vault 1.15.2, 1.14.6, or 1.13.10

  1. 1. Back up your Vault data and configuration files before proceeding with the upgrade.
  2. 2. Identify your current Vault version using `vault version` or checking your deployment manifests.
  3. 3. Determine which upgrade path suits your environment: upgrade to Vault 1.15.2 (recommended for latest features), 1.14.6 (LTS), or 1.13.10 (LTS).
  4. 4. For standalone Vault: stop the Vault service, replace the binary with the fixed version, restart the service.
  5. 5. For Vault HA clusters: follow the rolling upgrade procedure - upgrade standby nodes first, then promote a standby to active, then upgrade the former active node.
  6. 6. Verify the upgrade was successful by running `vault version` and confirming it shows one of the fixed versions.
  7. 7. Monitor memory usage to confirm the memory leak has been resolved.

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
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
20.0 hours of engineering $3,500
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $5,600.

Scan for this in your stack

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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-2023-5954 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