Medium severity · published Aug 9, 2025
CVE-2025-55003
OpenBao Login MFA Bypasses Rate Limiting and TOTP Token Reuse
5.7
CVSS
0.3%
EPSS
No
On KEV
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 vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.3% · higher than 17% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
OP
openbao · openbao
< 2.3.2 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-55003
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2025-55003
Not Applicable
https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2025-19-vault-login-mfa-bypass-of-rate-limiting-and-totp-token-reuse/76038
Patch
https://github.com/openbao/openbao/commit/8340a6918f6c41d8f75b6c3845c376d9dc32ed19
Vendor Advisory
https://github.com/openbao/openbao/security/advisories/GHSA-rxp7-9q75-vj3p
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