Vault unauthenticated denial of service through complex json payload
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2025-6203 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | HashiCorp |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2025-08-28 20:15:43 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-09-26 00:10:00 UTC |
| Description | A malicious user may submit a specially-crafted complex payload that otherwise meets the default request size limit which results in excessive memory and CPU consumption of Vault. This may lead to a timeout in Vault’s auditing subroutine, potentially resulting in the Vault server to become unresponsive. This vulnerability, CVE-2025-6203, is fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.20.3 and Vault Enterprise 1.20.3, 1.19.9, 1.18.14, and 1.16.25. |
Risk And Classification
Primary CVSS: v3.1 7.5 HIGH from [email protected]
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Problem Types: CWE-770 | CWE-770 CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
| Version | Source | Type | Score | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | [email protected] | Secondary | 7.5 | HIGH | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
| 3.1 | CNA | CVSS | 7.5 | HIGH | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H |
CVSS v3.1 Breakdown
Attack Vector
NetworkAttack Complexity
LowPrivileges Required
NoneUser Interaction
NoneScope
UnchangedConfidentiality
NoneIntegrity
NoneAvailability
HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)
Vendor Declared Affected Products
| Source | Vendor | Product | Version | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | HashiCorp | Vault | affected 1.15.0 1.21.0 semver | 64 bit, 32 bit, x86, ARM, MacOS, Windows, Linux |
| CNA | HashiCorp | Vault Enterprise | affected 1.15.0 1.21.2 semver | 64 bit, 32 bit, x86, ARM, MacOS, Windows, Linux |
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2025-24-vault-denial-of-service-though-complex-json-p... | [email protected] | discuss.hashicorp.com | Vendor Advisory |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
No vendor comments have been submitted for this CVE.
There are currently no legacy QID mappings associated with this CVE.