CVE-2025-12044 | Vault Vulnerable to Denial of Service Due to Rate Limit Regression

Vault and Vault Enterprise (“Vault”) are vulnerable to an unauthenticated denial of service when processing JSON payloads. This occurs due to a regression from a previous fix for [+HCSEC-2025-24+|https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2025-24-vault-denial-of-service-though-complex-json-payloads/76393]  which allowed for processing JSON payloads before applying rate limits. This vulnerability, CVE-2025-12044, is fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.21.0 and Vault Enterprise 1.16.27, 1.19.11, 1.20.5, and 1.21.0.

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

CVE-2025-12044 is rated Moderate Risk (49.4/100): CVSS High severity, with medium exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.32%). 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-2025-12044

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 2026-05-24 0.23% 0.32% +0.09%
2 2026-05-22 0.29% 0.23% -0.05%
3 2026-05-19 — 0.29% —

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-12044

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.5 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H 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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
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:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 3.9 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-12044

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2025-12044

GHSA-vp5w-xcfc-73wf · Severity: high · Ecosystem: go — Hashicorp Vault and Vault Enterprise vulnerable to a denial of service when processing JSON

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-12044

vendor priority summary link
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-12044

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-12044

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
hashicorp vault >= 1.16.25, < 1.16.27 cpe:2.3:a:hashicorp:vault:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
hashicorp vault >= 1.18.14, <= 1.18.15 cpe:2.3:a:hashicorp:vault:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
hashicorp vault >= 1.19.9, <= 1.19.11 cpe:2.3:a:hashicorp:vault:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
hashicorp vault >= 1.20.3, < 1.20.5 cpe:2.3:a:hashicorp:vault:*:*:*:*:enterprise:*:*:*
hashicorp vault >= 1.20.3, < 1.21.0 cpe:2.3:a:hashicorp:vault:*:*:*:*:-:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-12044

cvelogic Threat Intelligence