OpenBao AWS Plugin Vulnerable to Cross-Account IAM Role Impersonation in AWS Auth Method

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

8.1 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

EPSS

• CVE-2025-59048: 0.27% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 18.54 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact This is a cross-account impersonation vulnerability in the auth-aws plugin. The vulnerability allows an IAM role from an untrusted AWS account to authenticate by impersonating a role with the same name in a trusted account, leading to unauthorized access. This impacts all users of the auth-aws plugin who operate in a multi-account AWS environment where IAM role names may not be unique across accounts. The core of the vulnerability is a flawed caching mechanism that fails to validate the AWS Account ID during authentication. While the use of wildcards in a boundiamprincipalarn configuration significantly increases the attack surface, wildcards are not a prerequisite for exploitation. The vulnerability can be exploited with specific ARN bindings if a role name collision occurs. Successful exploitation can lead to unauthorized access to secrets, data exfiltration, and privilege escalation. Given that the only prerequisite is a duplicate role name, the severity is considered high.…

Published by the source

23 Oct 2025, 16:01 UTC

Last modified by the source

23 Oct 2025, 16:01 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 15:13 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-jp7h-4f3c-9rc7

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2025-59048

Advisory: OpenBao AWS Plugin Vulnerable to Cross-Account IAM Role Impersonation in AWS Auth Method
IDs: CVE-2025-59048, GHSA-jp7h-4f3c-9rc7
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2025-59048 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:13 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 8.1)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins 0.1.1. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins: affected <= 0.1.0; fixed in 0.1.1

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-jp7h-4f3c-9rc7 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-jp7h-4f3c-9rc7 lists affected ranges: Go github.com/openbao/openbao-plugins >=0 <=0.1.0)

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