CVE-2021-32074 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) CWE-532 vulnerability in hashicorp/vault-action. 1 public exploit or proof-of-concept reference is indexed, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for hashicorp/vault-action — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Vault GitHub Action did not correctly mask multi-line secrets in output
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
hashicorp/vault-actionReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects GitHub Actions packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
HashiCorp vault-action (aka Vault GitHub Action) before 2.2.0 allows attackers to obtain sensitive information from log files because a multi-line secret was not correctly registered with GitHub Actions for log masking.
The vault-action implementation did not correctly handle the marking of multi-line variables. As a result, multi-line secrets were not correctly masked in vault-action output.
Remediation: Customers using vault-action should evaluate the risk associated with this issue, and consider upgrading to vault-action 2.2.0 or newer. Please refer to https://github.com/marketplace/actions/hashicorp-vault for more information.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 📦GitHub Actions | hashicorp/vault-action | all versions | 2.2.0 |
Affected Products
vault-actionhashicorpResearch use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for hashicorp/vault-action, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update hashicorp/vault-action to 2.2.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2021-32074 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2021-32074 in your dependencies?
Find it across GitHub Actions, including transitive dependencies.