CVE-2023-0620 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) SQL Injection vulnerability in github.com/hashicorp/vault. A fix is available for github.com/hashicorp/vault — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Vault Vulnerable to SQL Injection When Configuring the Microsoft SQL Database Storage Backend
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2023-0620.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2023-0620 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/hashicorp/vault🐹github.com/hashicorp/vault🐹github.com/hashicorp/vaultReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
HashiCorp Vault and Vault Enterprise versions 0.8.0 until 1.13.1 are vulnerable to an SQL injection attack when using the Microsoft SQL (MSSQL) Database Storage Backend. When configuring the MSSQL plugin, certain parameters are required to establish a connection (schema, database, and table) are not sanitized when passed to the user-provided MSSQL database. A privileged attacker with the ability to write arbitrary data to Vault's configuration may modify these parameters to execute a malicious SQL command when the Vault configuration is applied. This issue is fixed in versions 1.13.1, 1.12.5, and 1.11.9.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/hashicorp/vault | ≥ 0.8.0&&< 1.11.9 | 1.11.9go get github.com/hashicorp/vault@v1.11.9 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/hashicorp/vault | ≥ 1.12.0&&< 1.12.5 | 1.12.5go get github.com/hashicorp/vault@v1.12.5 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/hashicorp/vault | ≥ 1.13.0&&< 1.13.1 | 1.13.1go get github.com/hashicorp/vault@v1.13.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/hashicorp/vault, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/hashicorp/vault to 1.11.9 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-0620 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.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2023-0620 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-0620. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.13 | openshift4/ose-installer:v4.13.0-202305091542.p0.g44db7b2.assembly.stream | RHSA-2023:1326 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14 | openshift4/ose-installer:v4.14.0-202310201027.p0.g03546e5.assembly.stream | RHSA-2023:5006 |
| RHODF-4.13-RHEL-9 | odf4/ocs-rhel9-operator:v4.13.0-67 | RHSA-2023:3742 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-0620 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-0620 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.