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Vulnerability record · CVE-2025-55003 · published 9 August 2025

CVE-2025-55003: Openbao improper restriction of authentication attempts vulnerability

Openbao · Openbao

OpenBao exists to provide a software solution to manage, store, and distribute sensitive data including secrets, certificates, and keys. In versions 2.3.1 and below, OpenBao's Login Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) system allows enforcing MFA using Time-based One Time Password (TOTP). Due to normalization applied by the underlying TOTP library, codes were accepted which could contain whitespace; this whitespace could bypass internal rate limiting of the MFA method and allow reuse of existing MFA codes. This issue was fixed in version 2.3.2. To work around this, use of rate-limiting quotas can limit an attacker's ability to exploit this: https://openbao.org/api-docs/system/rate-limit-quotas/.

5.7 CVSS 3.1 Medium EPSS 0.25% · top 84.6% CWE-307 · Improper restriction of authentication attempts
5.7CVSS 3.1 base score
0.25%EPSS exploitation probability, 30 days
NoNot in CISA KEV
1Affected product versions listed by NVD
3References
17 Jun 2026Last modified by NVD

Description

OpenBao exists to provide a software solution to manage, store, and distribute sensitive data including secrets, certificates, and keys. In versions 2.3.1 and below, OpenBao's Login Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) system allows enforcing MFA using Time-based One Time Password (TOTP). Due to normalization applied by the underlying TOTP library, codes were accepted which could contain whitespace; this whitespace could bypass internal rate limiting of the MFA method and allow reuse of existing MFA codes. This issue was fixed in version 2.3.2. To work around this, use of rate-limiting quotas can limit an attacker's ability to exploit this: https://openbao.org/api-docs/system/rate-limit-quotas/.

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

Affected products

1 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.

References

LinkTags
https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2025-19-vault-login-mfa-bypass-of-rate-limiting-and-totp-token-reuse/76038 Not Applicable
https://github.com/openbao/openbao/commit/8340a6918f6c41d8f75b6c3845c376d9dc32ed19 Patch
https://github.com/openbao/openbao/security/advisories/GHSA-rxp7-9q75-vj3p Vendor Advisory

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Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.

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Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2025-55003), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-10-10). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.