CVE-2025-6000
Published: 01 August 2025
Summary
CVE-2025-6000 is a critical-severity Code Injection (CWE-94) vulnerability in Hashicorp Vault. Its CVSS base score is 9.1 (Critical).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked in the top 30.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-6 (Least Privilege) and CM-7 (Least Functionality).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2025-6000 is a code injection vulnerability (CWE-94) affecting HashiCorp Vault, a secrets management tool. It allows a privileged Vault operator within the root namespace who has write permission to the {{sys/audit}} path to achieve arbitrary code execution on the underlying host, provided a plugin directory is configured in Vault's settings. The issue has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H) and was published on 2025-08-01.
An attacker must possess high privileges as a Vault operator in the root namespace with write access to {{sys/audit}}. Exploitation requires a plugin directory to be set in the Vault configuration, enabling the operator to inject and execute malicious code directly on the host operating system, potentially leading to full compromise of the Vault host.
HashiCorp's security advisory (HCSEC-2025-14) details the fix, available in Vault Community Edition 1.20.1 and Vault Enterprise versions 1.20.1, 1.19.7, 1.18.12, and 1.16.23. Security practitioners should upgrade to these patched releases and review configurations to ensure plugin directories are not unnecessarily enabled or accessible.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2025-23387
Vulnerability details
A privileged Vault operator within the root namespace with write permission to {{sys/audit}} may obtain code execution on the underlying host if a plugin directory is set in Vault’s configuration. Fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.20.1 and Vault Enterprise 1.20.1,…
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1.19.7, 1.18.12, and 1.16.23.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Code injection in Vault directly enables remote exploitation of a network-accessible application (T1190) leading to arbitrary command execution on the host (T1059).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Directly mitigates the code injection vulnerability by requiring timely installation of patches released in Vault 1.20.1 and equivalent Enterprise versions.
Prevents exploitation by enforcing least privilege to deny unnecessary write access to the sensitive {{sys/audit}} path for Vault operators.
Blocks the vulnerability precondition by restricting Vault to least functionality, such as disabling unnecessary plugin directory configuration.