CVE-2025-11621 | Vault AWS auth method bypass due to AWS client cache

Vault and Vault Enterprise’s (“Vault”) AWS Auth method may be susceptible to authentication bypass if the role of the configured bound_principal_iam is the same across AWS accounts, or uses a wildcard. This vulnerability, CVE-2025-11621, is fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.21.0 and Vault Enterprise 1.21.0, 1.20.5, 1.19.11, and 1.16.27

Published: 2025-10-23 Last update: 2025-12-29 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2025-11621 is rated Moderate Risk (43.4/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.12%). Review affected assets and schedule remediation.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2025-11621

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-03-21 0.17% 0.12% -0.05%
2 2026-02-22 0.05% 0.17% +0.12%
3 2025-11-24 — 0.05% —

Full EPSS history (5 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-11621

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.1 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.8 5.2 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-11621

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2025-11621

GHSA-9g4h-h484-3578 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: go — HashiCorp Vault and Vault Enterprise's AWS Auth method may be susceptible to authentication bypass

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-11621

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2025-11621: 1 source package rows (vault); 11 state rows across 1 repos (edge-community); fixed 0, open 11. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2025-11621
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-11621

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-11621

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
hashicorp vault >= 0.6.0, < 1.16.27 cpe:2.3:a:hashicorp:vault:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
hashicorp vault >= 0.6.0, < 1.21.0 cpe:2.3:a:hashicorp:vault:*:*:*:*:-:*:*:*
hashicorp vault >= 1.18.0, <= 1.18.15 cpe:2.3:a:hashicorp:vault:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
hashicorp vault >= 1.19.0, < 1.19.11 cpe:2.3:a:hashicorp:vault:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
hashicorp vault >= 1.20.0, < 1.20.5 cpe:2.3:a:hashicorp:vault:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-11621

cvelogic Threat Intelligence