CVE-2025-54998 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-307 vulnerability in github.com/openbao/openbao. A fix is available for github.com/openbao/openbao — see the affected versions and patch details below.
OpenBao Userpass and LDAP User Lockout Bypass
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- 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-2025-54998.
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
github.com/openbao/openbao🐹github.com/openbao/openbaoReal-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
OpenBao exists to provide a software solution to manage, store, and distribute sensitive data including secrets, certificates, and keys. In versions 0.1.0 through 2.3.1, attackers could bypass the automatic user lockout mechanisms in the OpenBao Userpass or LDAP auth systems. This was caused by different aliasing between pre-flight and full login request user entity alias attributions. This is fixed in version 2.3.2. To work around this issue, existing users may apply rate-limiting quotas on the authentication endpoints:, see https://openbao.org/api-docs/system/rate-limit-quotas/.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/openbao/openbao | ≥ 0.1.0&&< 2.3.2 | 2.3.2go get github.com/openbao/openbao@v2.3.2 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/openbao/openbao | all versions | 0.0.0-20250807212521-c52795c1ef74go get github.com/openbao/openbao@v0.0.0-20250807212521-c52795c1ef74 |
Affected Products
openbaoopenbaoDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/openbao/openbao, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/openbao/openbao to 2.3.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-54998 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-2025-54998 in your dependencies?
Find it across Go, including transitive dependencies.