GHSA-jp7h-4f3c-9rc7 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
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 GHSA-jp7h-4f3c-9rc7.
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
GHSA-jp7h-4f3c-9rc7 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 379,145 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/openbao/openbao-pluginsReal-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
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins | all versions | 0.1.1go get github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins@v0.1.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/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 GHSA-jp7h-4f3c-9rc7 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 GHSA-jp7h-4f3c-9rc7 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-jp7h-4f3c-9rc7. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-jp7h-4f3c-9rc7 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-jp7h-4f3c-9rc7 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.