Raw vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:HSummary
CVE-2026-3605 is a high-severity Authentication Bypass Using an Alternate Path or Channel (CWE-288) vulnerability in Hashicorp Vault. Its CVSS base score is 8.1 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploit Public-Facing Application (T1190); ranked at the 31th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-24 (Access Control Decisions) and AC-25 (Reference Monitor) — see the control section below for these in your framework.
Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary
Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.
CVE-2026-3605 is a policy bypass vulnerability in HashiCorp Vault's KV v2 secrets engine. An authenticated user with access to a kvv2 path through a policy containing a glob pattern may delete secrets they were not authorized to read or write, resulting in a denial-of-service condition. The issue affects Vault Community Edition and Vault Enterprise versions prior to 2.0.0, 1.21.5, 1.20.10, and 1.19.16, and is rated with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.1 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H), linked to CWE-288.
An attacker requires low privileges as an authenticated user with policy-granted access to a kvv2 path via glob patterns. Exploitation allows deletion of unauthorized secrets within the same namespace, causing denial-of-service by rendering those secrets unavailable. The vulnerability does not permit cross-namespace deletions or reading of secret data.
HashiCorp's security advisory details the fix in Vault Community Edition 2.0.0 and Vault Enterprise 2.0.0, 1.21.5, 1.20.10, and 1.19.16. Practitioners should upgrade to these patched versions to mitigate the issue, as described in the advisory at https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2026-05-vault-kvv2-metadata-and-secret-deletion-policy-bypass-denial-of-service/77342.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-23346
Vulnerability Data
An authenticated user with access to a kvv2 path through a policy containing a glob may be able to delete secrets they were not authorized to read or write, resulting in denial-of-service. This vulnerability did not allow a malicious user…
more
to delete secrets across namespaces, nor read any secret data. Fxed in Vault Community Edition 2.0.0 and Vault Enterprise 2.0.0, 1.21.5, 1.20.10, and 1.19.16.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Control response
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- 7 hardening rules · 3 OS baselines
V6.4.3V6.6.1V12.1.3
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Requires a tamperproof, always-invoked reference monitor that structurally blocks bypass via any alternate path.
Enforces authorization checks on every logical access path, eliminating unauthenticated alternate channels.
Requiring explicit access-control decisions on each request blocks unauthorized key-driven access.
Mandates unique identification and authentication for all organizational users, covering the primary authentication requirement.
Least-privilege restrictions limit the scope of data reachable even if a key check is bypassed.
Controls all external and key internal interfaces, reducing the chance of unauthenticated alternate channels.
Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Requiring authentication on every channel and path directly eliminates alternate-path bypasses.
Enforcing authorization policy and least privilege directly blocks user-controlled key tampering that bypasses access checks.
Protecting networks and environments from unauthorized logical access blocks bypass via undocumented channels.
Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI
Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.
Security testing can detect alternate-path bypasses but does not prevent them in production.
Information access restriction explicitly enforces that users may only retrieve data they are authorized to see, directly addressing user-controlled key bypass.
Secure authentication control directly mitigates bypass by requiring strong, consistent authentication on all paths.
Access control policy directly addresses alternate authentication paths by requiring all channels to enforce authentication.
Authentication information management ensures credentials and mechanisms are consistently applied across all access paths.
Access rights provisioning and review prevent bypass via unmonitored or alternate channels.
Hardening callouts derived
Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).
Oracle Linux 8 (2 rules)
- V-248598 There must be no ".shosts" files on the OL 8 operating system. prevents CWE-288
- V-248827 OL 8 must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-288
Oracle Linux 9 (2 rules)
- V-271757 OL 9 file systems must not contain shosts.equiv files. prevents CWE-288
- V-271758 OL 9 file systems must not contain .shosts files. prevents CWE-288
RHEL 7 (3 rules)
- V-204440 Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating systems version 7.2 or newer using Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) must require authentication upon booting into single-user and maintenance modes. prevents CWE-288
- V-204442 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not have the rsh-server package installed. prevents CWE-288
- V-204424 The Red Hat Enterprise Linux operating system must not allow accounts configured with blank or null passwords. prevents CWE-288