CVE-2024-9180
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 · uneditedA privileged Vault operator with write permissions to the root namespace’s identity endpoint could escalate their own or another user’s privileges to Vault’s root policy. Fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.18.0 and Vault Enterprise 1.18.0, 1.17.7, 1.16.11, and 1.15.16.
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 confidenceA privilege escalation vulnerability in HashiCorp Vault allows operators with write permissions to the root namespace’s identity endpoint to modify policy assignments and escalate their own or another user's privileges to Vault's root policy. This bypasses intended access controls by manipulating identity entities and group memberships.
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< 2.0.3>= 1.7.7, <= 1.17.7>= 1.7.7, < 1.18.0>= 1.15.0, < 1.15.16>= 1.16.0, < 1.16.11CVSS 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
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify Vault or Openbao versionRun `vault version` or `openbao version` to get the installed version numberAffected if Version is < 2.0.3 for Openbao, or falls within 1.7.7 to 1.17.7, 1.7.7 to 1.18.0, 1.15.0 to 1.15.16, or 1.16.0 to 1.16.11 for Hashicorp Vault
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Verify identity endpoint permissionsReview policies attached to users or entities that have write access to the identity/ namespace endpoint. Use `vault policy list` and `vault policy read <policy-name>` to inspect each policy, looking for capabilities including 'create', 'update', or 'sudo' on path 'identity/*' or 'sys/identity/*'Affected if Any policy grants write or sudo capabilities to the identity endpoint in the root namespace to non-admin users
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Check for unauthorized root policy assignmentsRun `vault list sys/policies/policy` to list all policies, then examine each with `vault read sys/policies/policy/<name>` to identify any that assign the 'root' policy to users. Also run `vault list identity/group` to list identity groups and check their policies with `vault read identity/group/<id>`Affected if Any policy other than the built-in 'root' policy assigns the 'root' policy, or any user/entity not intended to have root access is associated with the root policy
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Audit identity entity and group membership changesReview Vault audit logs for recent operations on 'identity/entity/*' and 'identity/group/*' paths, particularly create, update, or delete operations, using `vault audit list` to identify audit devices and then reviewing those logsAffected if There are recent modifications to identity entities or groups that added or modified policy assignments, especially to root or high-privilege policies
You are affected if your Vault/Openbao version is within the vulnerable ranges AND non-administrative operators have write access to the root namespace identity endpoint, or if any unexpected policies granting root access exist.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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 · scoped1.15.161.16.111.18.0
Upgrade Vault to the patched versions (1.18.0, 1.17.7, 1.16.11, or 1.15.16) and review identity endpoint access controls to ensure only minimal necessary permissions are granted to operators.
Vault 1.18.0 (or 1.17.7, 1.16.11, 1.15.16 depending on current version)
- 1. Identify current Vault version using 'vault version' command
- 2. Determine the appropriate fixed version based on your current version (1.15.x → 1.15.16, 1.16.x → 1.16.11, 1.17.x → 1.17.7, or 1.18.0 for latest)
- 3. Review Vault upgrade documentation and release notes for your target version
- 4. Create a snapshot/backup of Vault data before upgrade
- 5. Test upgrade in a non-production environment first
- 6. Upgrade Vault to the fixed version using your deployment method (package manager, binary, or Helm chart)
- 7. Verify the upgrade was successful and the vulnerability is resolved
- 8. Confirm that identity namespace permissions are properly restricted
Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-9180 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-9180 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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