CVE-2025-55003 | OpenBao Login MFA Bypasses Rate Limiting and TOTP Token Reuse

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/.

Published: 2025-08-09 Last update: 2025-08-12 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2025-55003 is rated Low Risk (32.6/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.10%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

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-2025-55003

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 2026-06-05 0.04% 0.10% +0.06%
2 2026-01-04 0.06% 0.04% -0.02%
3 2025-10-16 — 0.06% —

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-55003

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
5.7 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/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:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 2.1 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-55003

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2025-55003

GHSA-rxp7-9q75-vj3p · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: go — OpenBao Login MFA Bypass of Rate Limiting and TOTP Token Reuse

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-55003

vendor priority summary link
alpine medium CVE-2025-55003: 1 source package rows (openbao); 20 state rows across 2 repos (3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 2, open 18. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2025-55003

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-55003

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
openbao openbao < 2.3.2 cpe:2.3:a:openbao:openbao:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2025-55003

cvelogic Threat Intelligence