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VaultApplication · Hashicorp

CVE-2025-12044

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-10-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.16.27 / 1.20.5 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
Vault and Vault Enterprise (“Vault”) are vulnerable to an unauthenticated denial of service when processing JSON payloads. This occurs due to a regression from a previous fix for [+HCSEC-2025-24+|https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2025-24-vault-denial-of-service-though-complex-json-payloads/76393]  which allowed for processing JSON payloads before applying rate limits. This vulnerability, CVE-2025-12044, is fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.21.0 and Vault Enterprise 1.16.27, 1.19.11, 1.20.5, and 1.21.0.

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

Vault and Vault Enterprise contain a regression vulnerability (CVE-2025-12044) where JSON payloads are processed before rate limits are applied, allowing unauthenticated attackers to cause denial of service by sending complex JSON payloads. This is a regression from a previous fix for HCSEC-2025-24.

MitigationUpgrade Vault to version 1.21.0 (Community) or Enterprise versions 1.16.27, 1.19.11, 1.20.5, or 1.21.0 to apply the rate limiting fix before JSON processing.

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:>= 1.16.25, < 1.16.27>= 1.18.14, <= 1.18.15>= 1.19.9, <= 1.19.11>= 1.20.3, < 1.20.5>= 1.20.3, < 1.21.0

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 installed Vault version
    Run 'vault version' command on the Vault server, or check the Vault binary metadata
    Affected if Version is >= 1.16.25 and < 1.16.27, OR >= 1.18.14 and <= 1.18.15, OR >= 1.19.9 and <= 1.19.11, OR >= 1.20.3 and < 1.20.5, OR >= 1.20.3 and < 1.21.0
  2. Confirm Vault API listener is exposed
    Check Vault configuration file (usually /etc/vault/config.hcl) for listener section and network exposure
    Affected if Vault API port (default 8200) is bound to an IP accessible from untrusted networks
  3. Verify JSON API endpoint accessibility
    Identify API endpoints that accept JSON payloads (such as /v1/sys/...) and confirm they accept unauthenticated requests
    Affected if Unauthenticated JSON-processing endpoints are reachable by attackers

User is affected if Vault version is within any of the affected ranges AND the JSON API endpoints are network-accessible to unauthenticated attackers.

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 1.16.27 / 1.20.5 / 1.21.0 or later
Fixed in 1.16.271.20.51.21.0
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Vault to version 1.21.0 (Community) or Enterprise versions 1.16.27, 1.19.11, 1.20.5, or 1.21.0 to apply the rate limiting fix before JSON processing.

Recommended fix High confidence

1.16.27, 1.19.11, 1.20.5, or 1.21.0 (recommended: latest stable 1.21.x)

  1. 1. Identify current Vault version by running `vault version`
  2. 2. Determine appropriate upgrade target based on current version: if 1.16.x upgrade to 1.16.27; if 1.18.x upgrade to 1.18.16 or later; if 1.19.x upgrade to 1.19.11; if 1.20.x upgrade to 1.20.5; otherwise upgrade to 1.21.0
  3. 3. Review Vault upgrade documentation at https://developer.hashicorp.com/vault/docs/upgrading
  4. 4. Create a backup of Vault data and configuration using `vault operator snapshot save`
  5. 5. Test the upgrade in a non-production environment first
  6. 6. Perform the upgrade following standard Vault upgrade procedures
  7. 7. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking `vault version` output
  8. 8. Confirm the vulnerability is resolved by testing JSON payload processing
Caveat Review release notes for breaking changes between your current version and target version before upgrading; Enterprise customers should verify plugin and feature compatibility

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

Fix this in Vault Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,480
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,968.

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-2025-12044 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