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VaultApplication · Hashicorp

CVE-2025-5999

HIGH · 7.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-08-01
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.16.22 / 1.18.11 or later.
See remediation →
78/100
Remediation priority · High
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
A privileged Vault operator with write permissions to the root namespace’s identity endpoint could escalate their own or another user’s token privileges to Vault’s root policy. Fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.20.0 and Vault Enterprise 1.20.0, 1.19.6, 1.18.11 and 1.16.22.

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 privileged Vault operator with write permissions to the root namespace's identity endpoint can escalate their own or another user's token privileges to Vault's root policy by manipulating the identity endpoint.

MitigationUpgrade to Vault Community Edition 1.20.0 or Vault Enterprise 1.20.0, 1.19.6, 1.18.11, or 1.16.22. Additionally, audit access controls to the identity endpoint in the root namespace to ensure only necessary operators have write permissions.

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:>= 0.10.4, < 1.16.22>= 0.10.4, < 1.20.0>= 1.17.0, < 1.18.11>= 1.19.0, < 1.19.6

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
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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check installed Vault version
    Run `vault version` to obtain the exact version number
    Affected if The version is 0.10.4 or higher but lower than 1.16.22; OR 1.16.22 or higher but lower than 1.20.0; OR 1.17.0 or higher but lower than 1.18.11; OR 1.19.0 or higher but lower than 1.19.6
  2. Review policies granting identity endpoint access
    Use `vault policy list` to enumerate all policies, then run `vault policy read <policy-name>` for each to inspect which ones grant write access to `identity/` path in the root namespace
    Affected if Any policy grants write ('create', 'update', 'delete') permissions to the identity endpoint in the root namespace to users other than the root token or a dedicated admin
  3. Check entity and group alias privileges
    Run `vault identity list -namespace=` to list entities in root namespace, then `vault identity entity <entity-id>` to inspect their policies, looking for assignments that include policies with identity write access
    Affected if Any entity or group in the root namespace is attached to a policy allowing write access to the identity endpoint, other than the root user or administrators explicitly intended to have this access

You are affected if your Vault version falls within the vulnerable ranges AND non-root operators have write permissions to the identity endpoint in the root namespace.

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 1.16.22 / 1.18.11 / 1.19.6 or later
Fixed in 1.16.221.18.111.19.6
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Vault Community Edition 1.20.0 or Vault Enterprise 1.20.0, 1.19.6, 1.18.11, or 1.16.22. Additionally, audit access controls to the identity endpoint in the root namespace to ensure only necessary operators have write permissions.

Recommended fix High confidence

Vault Community Edition 1.20.0 (or Vault Enterprise 1.20.0/1.19.6/1.18.11/1.16.22 depending on compatibility requirements)

  1. 1. Identify current Vault version using `vault version` command
  2. 2. Determine the appropriate upgrade path based on current version and deployment type (Community vs Enterprise)
  3. 3. Review Vault upgrade documentation at https://developer.hashicorp.com/vault/docs/upgrades
  4. 4. Take a snapshot of Vault data using `vault operator snapshot save` before upgrading
  5. 5. For versions < 1.16.22: Upgrade directly to 1.16.22 or later (preferably 1.20.0)
  6. 6. For versions >= 1.16.22 and < 1.18.11: Upgrade to 1.18.11 or later (preferably 1.20.0)
  7. 7. For versions >= 1.18.11 and < 1.19.6: Upgrade to 1.19.6 or later (preferably 1.20.0)
  8. 8. For versions >= 1.19.6 and < 1.20.0: Upgrade to 1.20.0
Caveat Review HashiCorp Vault upgrade notes for breaking changes between your current version and target version; major version upgrades may require compatibility considerations

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

Fix this in Vault Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
18.0 hours of engineering $3,140
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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-2025-5999 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