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MEDIUM severity

CVE-2023-5954 — vault

MEDIUM

CVE-2023-5954 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.9) CWE-401 vulnerability in github.com/hashicorp/vault. A fix is available for github.com/hashicorp/vault — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Vault Requests Triggering Policy Checks May Lead To Unbounded Memory Consumption

Also known asBIT-vault-2023-5954GHSA-4qhc-v8r6-8vwmGO-2023-2329
Published
Updated
Affected
3 pkgs
Patched
3 / 3
Exploits
None indexed
Exploitation data as of Nov 6, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗
0.7%probability of exploitation in next 30 days
Lower Risk0.00%
Lower risk than most CVEs54th percentile — riskier than 54% of all scored CVEsHighest risk
0.10%0.47%0.85%1.22%0.6%0.7%May 26Sep 26Nov 26

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

3 pkgs affected
🐹github.com/hashicorp/vault🐹github.com/hashicorp/vault🐹github.com/hashicorp/vault

Real-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 inbound client requests triggering a policy check can lead to an unbounded consumption of memory. A large number of these requests may lead to denial-of-service. Fixed in Vault 1.15.2, 1.14.6, and 1.13.10.

Affected Packages

3 total 3 fixed
EcosystemPackageVulnerable rangeFix
🐹Gogithub.com/hashicorp/vaultall versions1.13.10go get github.com/hashicorp/vault@v1.13.10
🐹Gogithub.com/hashicorp/vault≥ 1.14.0&&< 1.14.61.14.6go get github.com/hashicorp/vault@v1.14.6
🐹Gogithub.com/hashicorp/vault≥ 1.15.0&&< 1.15.21.15.2go get github.com/hashicorp/vault@v1.15.2

Affected Products

1 product · 6 configurations
Application
vaulthashicorp
≥ 1.15.0 && < 1.15.2
range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

  1. Detect

    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.

  2. Fix

    Update github.com/hashicorp/vault to 1.13.10 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-5954 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

  3. 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.

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.

Red HatModerate
ProductFixed inAdvisory
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.17openshift4/ose-installer-rhel9:v4.17.0-202409122204.p0.gdfd4c08.assembly.stream.el9RHSA-2024:3718
RHODF-4.15-RHEL-9odf4/mcg-rhel9-operator:v4.15.0-39RHSA-2024:1383

Frequently Asked Questions

HashiCorp Vault and Vault Enterprise inbound client requests triggering a policy check can lead to an unbounded consumption of memory. A large number of these requests may lead to denial-of-service. Fixed in Vault 1.15.2, 1.14.6, and 1.13.10.
O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

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CVE-2023-5954: vault — Fixed in 1.13.10