Security Bulletin
Summary
Vault and Vault Enterprise (“Vault”) are vulnerable to an unauthenticated denial of service when processing JSON payloads. This occurs due to a regression from a previous fix for HCSEC-2025-24 which allowed for processing JSON payloads before applying rate limits. This vulnerability, CVE-2025-12044, is fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.21.0 and Vault Enterprise 1.16.27, 1.19.11, 1.20.5, and 1.21.0
Vulnerability Details
CVEID: CVE-2025-12044
DESCRIPTION: Vault and Vault Enterprise (“Vault”) are vulnerable to an unauthenticated denial of service when processing JSON payloads. This occurs due to a regression from a previous fix for HCSEC-2025-24 which allowed for processing JSON payloads before applying rate limits. This vulnerability, CVE-2025-12044, is fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.21.0 and Vault Enterprise 1.16.27, 1.19.11, 1.20.5, and 1.21.0.
CWE: CWE-770: Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
CVSS Source: HashiCorp Inc.
CVSS Base score: 7.5
CVSS Vector: (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H)
Affected Products and Versions
Affected Product(s) | Version(s) |
Vault Enterprise | 1.20.3 to 1.20.4, 1.19.9 to 1.19.10, 1.18.14 to 1.18.15, 1.16.25 to 1.16.26 |
Vault Community Edition | 1.20.3 to 1.20.4 |
Remediation/Fixes
Customers should evaluate the risk associated with this issue and consider upgrading to Vault Community Edition 1.21.0 or Vault Enterprise 1.21.0, 1.19.11, and 1.16.27. Please refer to Upgrading Vault for general guidance.
Get Notified about Future Security Bulletins
References
Link to HashiCorp bulletin
Every request in Vault is subject to configurable rate limits. In Every request in Vault is subject to configurable rate limits. In HCSEC-2025-24, Vault fixed processing complex JSON payloads which may exhaust underlying resources depending on the payload. In affected versions, Vault accepted large but valid JSON requests below the max_request_size threshold. Because rate limiting occurred post-parse, repeated payloads could consume CPU and memory resources, resulting in service unavailability or crashes.
Acknowledgement
This issue was identified by Toni Tauro of Adfinis AG.
*The CVSS Environment Score is customer environment specific and will ultimately impact the Overall CVSS Score. Customers can evaluate the impact of this vulnerability in their environments by accessing the links in the Reference section of this Security Bulletin.
Disclaimer
According to the Forum of Incident Response and Security Teams (FIRST), the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) is an "industry open standard designed to convey vulnerability severity and help to determine urgency and priority of response." IBM PROVIDES THE CVSS SCORES ""AS IS"" WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, INCLUDING THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. CUSTOMERS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ASSESSING THE IMPACT OF ANY ACTUAL OR POTENTIAL SECURITY VULNERABILITY. In addition to other efforts to address potential vulnerabilities, IBM periodically updates the record of components contained in our product offerings. As part of that effort, if IBM identifies previously unidentified packages in a product/service inventory, we address relevant vulnerabilities regardless of CVE date. Inclusion of an older CVEID does not demonstrate that the referenced product has been used by IBM since that date, nor that IBM was aware of a vulnerability as of that date. We are making clients aware of relevant vulnerabilities as we become aware of them. "Affected Products and Versions" referenced in IBM Security Bulletins are intended to be only products and versions that are supported by IBM and have not passed their end-of-support or warranty date. Thus, failure to reference unsupported or extended-support products and versions in this Security Bulletin does not constitute a determination by IBM that they are unaffected by the vulnerability. Reference to one or more unsupported versions in this Security Bulletin shall not create an obligation for IBM to provide fixes for any unsupported or extended-support products or versions.
Document Location
Worldwide
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Document Information
Modified date:
21 May 2026
UID
ibm17249181