CVE-2025-59043

OpenBao vulnerable to denial of service via malicious JSON request processing

Published Oct 17, 2025 CVSS 3.1 · 7.5 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
OpenBao is an open source identity-based secrets management system. In OpenBao versions prior to 2.4.1, JSON objects after decoding may use significantly more memory than their serialized version. It is possible to craft a JSON payload to maximize the factor between serialized memory usage and deserialized memory usage, similar to a zip bomb, with factors reaching approximately 35. This can be used to circumvent the max_request_size configuration parameter which is intended to protect against denial of service attacks. The request body is parsed into a map very early in the request handling chain before authentication, which means an unauthenticated attacker can send a specifically crafted JSON object and cause an out-of-memory crash. Additionally, for requests with large numbers of strings, the audit subsystem can consume large quantities of CPU. The vulnerability is fixed in version 2.4.1.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-g46h-2rq9-gw5m OpenBao has potential Denial of Service vulnerability when processing malicious unauthenticated JSON requests
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:openbao:openbao:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Openbao
Openbao openbao
Vendors & Products Openbao
Openbao openbao
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'yes', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description OpenBao is an open source identity-based secrets management system. In OpenBao versions prior to 2.4.1, JSON objects after decoding may use significantly more memory than their serialized version. It is possible to craft a JSON payload to maximize the factor between serialized memory usage and deserialized memory usage, similar to a zip bomb, with factors reaching approximately 35. This can be used to circumvent the max_request_size configuration parameter which is intended to protect against denial of service attacks. The request body is parsed into a map very early in the request handling chain before authentication, which means an unauthenticated attacker can send a specifically crafted JSON object and cause an out-of-memory crash. Additionally, for requests with large numbers of strings, the audit subsystem can consume large quantities of CPU. The vulnerability is fixed in version 2.4.1.
Title OpenBao vulnerable to denial of service via malicious JSON request processing
Weaknesses CWE-400
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
GitHub_M
Published
Updated
Oct 17, 2025, 5:22 PM
Reserved
Sep 8, 2025, 4:19 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Oct 17, 2025, 4:15 PM
Modified
Oct 19, 2026, 4:10 PM