CVE-2023-4680
MEDIUMCVE-2023-4680 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.8) CWE-323 vulnerability in github.com/hashicorp/vault. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2023-4680 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Vault's Transit Secrets Engine Allowed Nonce Specified without Convergent Encryption
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 transit secrets engine allowed authorized users to specify arbitrary nonces, even with convergent encryption disabled. The encrypt endpoint, in combination with an offline attack, could be used to decrypt arbitrary ciphertext and potentially derive the authentication subkey when using transit secrets engine without convergent encryption. Introduced in 1.6.0 and fixed in 1.14.3, 1.13.7, and 1.12.11.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/hashicorp/vault | ≥ 1.6.0&&< 1.12.11 | 1.12.11 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/hashicorp/vault | ≥ 1.13.0&&< 1.13.7 | 1.13.7 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/hashicorp/vault | ≥ 1.14.0&&< 1.14.3 | 1.14.3 |
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. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/hashicorp/vault to 1.12.11 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-4680 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 pinpoints whether CVE-2023-4680 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2023-4680. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2023-4680 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2023-4680 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.