CVE-2025-6000

The attack requires possession of an operator account in the main namespace (root namespace) with write permissions to the sys/audit endpoint. If a plugin directory is configured in the Vault configuration, an attacker can through an appropriately crafted request to sys/audit cause arbitrary code execution at the operating system host level. The vulnerability mechanism is classified as code injection (CWE-94), which means the ability to inject and execute malicious code.

An attacker can obtain arbitrary code execution on the host with Vault process permissions, which in practice means complete takeover of the server, the ability to exfiltrate secrets, and further lateral movement in the infrastructure.

You should update to Vault Community Edition version 1.20.1 or correspondingly Vault Enterprise 1.20.1, 1.19.7, 1.18.12 or 1.16.23. Additionally, as a temporary measure, it is advisable to verify and limit the number of accounts with write permissions to sys/audit in the root namespace and consider removing the plugin directory configuration if it is not required.

HashiCorp Vault Community Edition and Vault Enterprise — all versions before 1.20.1 (Community Edition), as well as Enterprise in versions before 1.20.1, 1.19.7, 1.18.12 and 1.16.23, provided that a plugin directory is configured in the configuration.