{"id":"CVE-2025-59043","state":"PUBLISHED","title":"OpenBao vulnerable to denial of service via malicious JSON request processing","description":"OpenBao is an open source identity-based secrets management system. In OpenBao versions prior to 2.4.1, JSON objects after decoding may use significantly more memory than their serialized version. It is possible to craft a JSON payload to maximize the factor between serialized memory usage and deserialized memory usage, similar to a zip bomb, with factors reaching approximately 35. This can be used to circumvent the max_request_size configuration parameter which is intended to protect against denial of service attacks. The request body is parsed into a map very early in the request handling chain before authentication, which means an unauthenticated attacker can send a specifically crafted JSON object and cause an out-of-memory crash. Additionally, for requests with large numbers of strings, the audit subsystem can consume large quantities of CPU. The vulnerability is fixed in version 2.4.1.","publishedAt":"2025-10-17T16:03:23.584Z","updatedAt":"2025-10-17T17:22:52.795Z","severity":{"score":7.5,"label":"High","version":"3.1","vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","source":"GitHub_M"},"assigner":"GitHub_M","products":["openbao openbao"],"affected":[{"vendor":"openbao","product":"openbao","versions":[{"version":"< 2.4.1","status":"affected"}]}],"references":["https://github.com/openbao/openbao/security/advisories/GHSA-g46h-2rq9-gw5m","https://github.com/openbao/openbao/pull/1756","https://github.com/openbao/openbao/commit/d418f238bc99adc72c73109faf574cc2b672880c","https://github.com/openbao/openbao/blob/788536bd3e10818a7b4fb00aac6affc23388e5a9/http/logical.go#L50"],"weaknesses":["CWE-400"],"ingestedAt":"2026-10-29T20:09:39.787Z","source":{"repository":"CVEProject/cvelistV5","path":"cves/2025/59xxx/CVE-2025-59043.json","commit":"556c9d3a8cd17e218bb8e452ba7cd619a384ff47"},"raw":{"dataType":"CVE_RECORD","dataVersion":"5.1","cveMetadata":{"cveId":"CVE-2025-59043","state":"PUBLISHED","datePublished":"2025-10-17T16:03:23.584Z","dateUpdated":"2025-10-17T17:22:52.795Z","assignerShortName":"GitHub_M","assignerOrgId":"a0819718-46f1-4df5-94e2-005712e83aaa","dateReserved":"2025-09-08T16:19:26.171Z"},"containers":{"cna":{"title":"OpenBao vulnerable to denial of service via malicious JSON request processing","descriptions":[{"lang":"en","value":"OpenBao is an open source identity-based secrets management system. In OpenBao versions prior to 2.4.1, JSON objects after decoding may use significantly more memory than their serialized version. It is possible to craft a JSON payload to maximize the factor between serialized memory usage and deserialized memory usage, similar to a zip bomb, with factors reaching approximately 35. This can be used to circumvent the max_request_size configuration parameter which is intended to protect against denial of service attacks. The request body is parsed into a map very early in the request handling chain before authentication, which means an unauthenticated attacker can send a specifically crafted JSON object and cause an out-of-memory crash. Additionally, for requests with large numbers of strings, the audit subsystem can consume large quantities of CPU. The vulnerability is fixed in version 2.4.1."}],"affected":[{"vendor":"openbao","product":"openbao","versions":[{"version":"< 2.4.1","status":"affected"}]}],"references":[{"url":"https://github.com/openbao/openbao/security/advisories/GHSA-g46h-2rq9-gw5m","name":"https://github.com/openbao/openbao/security/advisories/GHSA-g46h-2rq9-gw5m","tags":["x_refsource_CONFIRM"]},{"url":"https://github.com/openbao/openbao/pull/1756","name":"https://github.com/openbao/openbao/pull/1756","tags":["x_refsource_MISC"]},{"url":"https://github.com/openbao/openbao/commit/d418f238bc99adc72c73109faf574cc2b672880c","name":"https://github.com/openbao/openbao/commit/d418f238bc99adc72c73109faf574cc2b672880c","tags":["x_refsource_MISC"]},{"url":"https://github.com/openbao/openbao/blob/788536bd3e10818a7b4fb00aac6affc23388e5a9/http/logical.go#L50","name":"https://github.com/openbao/openbao/blob/788536bd3e10818a7b4fb00aac6affc23388e5a9/http/logical.go#L50","tags":["x_refsource_MISC"]}],"metrics":[{"cvssV3_1":{"attackComplexity":"LOW","attackVector":"NETWORK","availabilityImpact":"HIGH","baseScore":7.5,"baseSeverity":"HIGH","confidentialityImpact":"NONE","integrityImpact":"NONE","privilegesRequired":"NONE","scope":"UNCHANGED","userInteraction":"NONE","vectorString":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","version":"3.1"}}],"problemTypes":[{"descriptions":[{"cweId":"CWE-400","lang":"en","description":"CWE-400: Uncontrolled Resource Consumption","type":"CWE"}]}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"GitHub_M","orgId":"a0819718-46f1-4df5-94e2-005712e83aaa","dateUpdated":"2025-10-17T16:03:23.584Z"},"source":{"advisory":"GHSA-g46h-2rq9-gw5m","discovery":"UNKNOWN"}},"adp":[{"title":"CISA ADP Vulnrichment","metrics":[{"other":{"type":"ssvc","content":{"timestamp":"2025-10-17T17:22:38.221939Z","id":"CVE-2025-59043","options":[{"Exploitation":"none"},{"Automatable":"yes"},{"Technical Impact":"partial"}],"role":"CISA Coordinator","version":"2.0.3"}}}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"CISA-ADP","orgId":"134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0","dateUpdated":"2025-10-17T17:22:52.795Z"}}]}}}