OpenBao is an open source identity-based secrets management system. Prior to 2.5.5, OpenBao users granted capabilities on /sys/namespaces/root within a non-root namespace could exploit special handling of the literal root path in namespace canonicalization. The /sys/namespaces/* endpoint family can resolve its containing namespace through a path prefix or X-Vault-Namespace header. ACL checks occurred before root canonicalized to an empty path, causing /sys/namespaces/root to resolve to the system backend's containing namespace and allowing permitted lookups, deletion, locking, or custom metadata changes against that direct containing namespace. The root namespace and arbitrary unrelated namespaces are not affected, and available operations depend on the capabilities granted on the path and subpaths such as /api-lock. This issue is fixed in version 2.5.5.
https://github.com/openbao/openbao/security/advisories/GHSA-mwr2-wmgp-crj6
https://github.com/openbao/openbao/releases/tag/v2.6.0
https://github.com/openbao/openbao/releases/tag/v2.5.5
https://github.com/openbao/openbao/pull/3311
https://github.com/openbao/openbao/pull/3308
https://github.com/openbao/openbao/commit/d3c1cc64b1ae7f9868b5c3e80b8b11671f0d97ae
https://github.com/openbao/openbao/commit/216b623cdde161eb7798bd095fc874c2174a4dd2
Published: 2026-09-15
Updated: 2026-09-15
Base Score: 7.5
Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:P
Severity: High
Base Score: 9.8
Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Severity: Critical
Base Score: 2.3
Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
Severity: Low
EPSS: 0.0036