Summary
OpenBao allows cancellation of root rekey and recovery rekey operations without authentication
Workarounds
If an active proxy or load balancer sits in front of OpenBao, an operator can deny requests to these endpoints from unauthorized IP ranges.
References
See the deprecation notice.
Impact
OpenBao and HashiCorp Vault allowed an attacker to perform unauthenticated, unaudited cancellation of root rekey and recovery rekey operations, effecting a denial of service.
The application does not adequately validate input before processing it, allowing unexpected values to reach sensitive code paths. Typical impact: varies by context: data corruption, logic bypass, or denial of service.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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In OpenBao v2.2.2 and later, manually setting the configuration option disable_unauthed_rekey_endpoints=true allows an operator to deny these rarely-used endpoints on global listeners.
In a future OpenBao release communicated on our website, we will set this to true for all users and provide an authenticated alternative.
This vulnerability has been disclosed to HashiCorp; see their website for more information.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2025-52894? CVE-2025-52894 is a medium-severity improper input validation vulnerability in github.com/openbao/openbao (go), affecting versions >= 0.1.0, < 2.3.1. It is fixed in 0.0.0-20250625150133-fe75468822a2. The application does not adequately validate input before processing it, allowing unexpected values to reach sensitive code paths.
- Which versions of github.com/openbao/openbao are affected by CVE-2025-52894? github.com/openbao/openbao (go) versions >= 0.1.0, < 2.3.1 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2025-52894? Yes. CVE-2025-52894 is fixed in 0.0.0-20250625150133-fe75468822a2. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2025-52894 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2025-52894 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2025-52894 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2025-52894? Upgrade
github.com/openbao/openbaoto 0.0.0-20250625150133-fe75468822a2 or later.