CVE-2025-54998 OpenBao Userpass and LDAP User Lockout Bypass
Attackers can bypass user lockout mechanisms in OpenBao Userpass and LDAP authentication systems, allowing continued brute-force attempts.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-54998?
CVE-2025-54998 is a medium-severity authentication bypass vulnerability in openbao, published on 9 Aug 2025. An attacker can exploit it over the internet without logging in, with no action from the victim.
Official 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/.
Weakness: CWE-307
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-54998?
6 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/openbao/openbao and openbao. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
github.com/openbao/openbao Go | All versions | 0.0.0-20250807212521-c52795c1ef74 |
github.com/openbao/openbao Go | All versions | 0.0.0-20250807212521-c52795c1ef74 |
github.com/openbao/openbao Go | All versions | 0.0.0-20250807212521-c52795c1ef74 |
github.com/openbao/openbao Go | From 0.1.0 | 2.3.2 |
github.com/openbao/openbao Go | From 0.1.0 | 2.3.2 |
openbao Bitnami | All versions | 0.0.0-20250807212521-c52795c1ef74, 2.3.2 |
Products include Openbao Openbao.
How do I fix CVE-2025-54998?
Upgrade github.com/openbao/openbao to a fixed version for your release line: 0.0.0-20250807212521-c52795c1ef74 or 2.3.2.
Upgrade, and rotate credentials and sessions that may have been exposed. More about Authentication bypass.
Is CVE-2025-54998 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-54998 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in openbao
- CVE-2026-33757 OpenBao lacks user confirmation for OIDC direct callback mode
- CVE-2026-33758 OpenBao has Reflected XSS in its OIDC authentication error message
- CVE-2025-54997 OpenBao: Privileged Operator May Execute Code on the Underlying Host
- CVE-2025-64761 OpenBao Privileged Operator Identity Group Root Escalation
- CVE-2025-59043 OpenBao vulnerable to denial of service via malicious JSON request processing
Sources
Also known as BIT-openbao-2025-54998, GHSA-j3xv-7fxp-gfhx, GO-2025-3855.