OpenBao is Vulnerable to Privileged Operator Identity Group Root Escalation

### Impact Similar to HCSEC-2025-13 / CVE-2025-5999, a privileged operator could use the identity group subsystem to add a root policy to a group identity group, escalating their or another user's permissions in the system. Specifically this is an issue when: 1. An operator in the root namespace has access to `identity/groups` endpoints. 2. An operator does not have policy access. Otherwise, an operator with policy access could create or modify an existing policy to grant root-equivalent permissions through the `sudo` capability. ### Patches Patched in version 2.4.4. ### Workarounds Users should audit the use of identity subsystem and deny operators access if it is not in use.

Source published

24 Nov 2025 21:51:18 UTC

Source modified

27 Jul 2026 09:11:29 UTC

Observed here

24 Oct 2026 13:19:41 UTC

Source terms

GitHub Advisory Database · CC-BY-4.0

Original source record · Cite this exact observation · Complete original publisher JSON

This view projects the publisher's source fields for reading; the original JSON retains additional fields and CVE enrichment containers. Attribution: osv · GitHub Advisory Database · CC-BY-4.0. Source text is retained; field grouping and change labels are provided by ChangeIntel.

CVSS_V4 · CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:H/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Publisher rating · HIGH