How severe is CVE-2025-59048?

CVE-2025-59048 has a CVSS score of 8.1/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2025-59048?

CVE-2025-59048 affects the following packages: github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins (Go). Ecosystems affected: Go.

How do I fix CVE-2025-59048?

Update github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins to 0.1.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-59048 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2025-59048 in my Go dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2025-59048 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Close the privilege gap rather than the entry point: audit which accounts, roles and service identities can reach the affected operation, drop the component to the least privilege it actually needs, and review file and directory permissions created by earlier installs — a default left in place is what makes this reachable.

Is CVE-2025-59048 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2025-59048 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2025-59048?

CVE-2025-59048 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.3%, placing it in the 19th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2025-59048?

CVE-2025-59048 is classified as CWE-694 (CWE-694), CWE-863 (CWE-863). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2025-59048 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2025-59048 was published on October 23, 2025 and was last updated on November 1, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐹

🐹 Go

Not in CISA KEV

HIGH severity

CVE-2025-59048 — openbao-plugins

HIGHFix: openbao/openbao-plugins@2a77af3

CVE-2025-59048 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.1) CWE-694 vulnerability in github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins. A fix is available for github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins — see the affected versions and patch details below.

OpenBao AWS Plugin Vulnerable to Cross-Account IAM Role Impersonation in AWS Auth Method

Also known asGHSA-jp7h-4f3c-9rc7GO-2025-4067

Published

Oct 23, 2025

Updated

Nov 1, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 10, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

Exploitation Status

No confirmed exploitation observed yet

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-2025-59048.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.3%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs19th percentile — riskier than 19% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

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

1 pkg affected

🐹github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins

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

Impact

This is a cross-account impersonation vulnerability in the auth-aws plugin. The vulnerability allows an IAM role from an untrusted AWS account to authenticate by impersonating a role with the same name in a trusted account, leading to unauthorized access.

This impacts all users of the auth-aws plugin who operate in a multi-account AWS environment where IAM role names may not be unique across accounts.

The core of the vulnerability is a flawed caching mechanism that fails to validate the AWS Account ID during authentication. While the use of wildcards in a bound_iam_principal_arn configuration significantly increases the attack surface, wildcards are not a prerequisite for exploitation. The vulnerability can be exploited with specific ARN bindings if a role name collision occurs.

Successful exploitation can lead to unauthorized access to secrets, data exfiltration, and privilege escalation. Given that the only prerequisite is a duplicate role name, the severity is considered high.

Patches

This vulnerability has been patched in version 0.1.1 of the auth-aws plugin. Users are advised to upgrade to version 0.1.1 or later to remediate this vulnerability.

Workarounds

For users who are unable to upgrade to version 0.1.1 immediately, the most effective workaround is to guarantee that IAM role names are unique across all AWS accounts that could potentially interact with your OpenBao environment. This is the most critical mitigation step.

Primary Mitigation: Audit your AWS organizations to identify and rename any duplicate IAM role names. Enforce a naming convention that includes account-specific identifiers to prevent future collisions.

While removing wildcards from your bound_iam_principal_arn configuration is still recommended as a security best practice, it will not mitigate this vulnerability if duplicate role names exist.

Credits

This vulnerability was discovered and reported by Pavlos Karakalidis

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐹Go	`github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins`	all versions	0.1.1`go get github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins@v0.1.1`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

Application

aws pluginopenbao

< 0.1.1

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins to 0.1.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-59048 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Close the privilege gap rather than the entry point: audit which accounts, roles and service identities can reach the affected operation, drop the component to the least privilege it actually needs, and review file and directory permissions created by earlier installs — a default left in place is what makes this reachable.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact This is a cross-account impersonation vulnerability in the `auth-aws` plugin. The vulnerability allows an IAM role from an untrusted AWS account to authenticate by impersonating a role with the **same name** in a trusted account, leading to unauthorized access. This impacts all users of the `auth-aws` plugin who operate in a multi-account AWS environment where IAM role names may not be unique across accounts. The core of the vulnerability is a flawed caching mechanism that fails to validate the AWS Account ID during authentication. While the use of wildcards in a `bound_iam_princi