Unauthenticated server crash via amplified JSON decoding
Published Oct 17, 2025 · Updated Oct 17, 2025
Resource exhaustion in OpenBao before 2.4.1 allows remote attackers to crash the server with a crafted unauthenticated JSON request. Early request handling decodes the body into a map before authentication, allowing a compact object to expand roughly 35-fold in memory and evade max_request_size. No credentials or user interaction are required; memory exhaustion causes an out-of-memory crash, while string-heavy requests also drive audit CPU consumption.
Summary
What happened
Resource exhaustion in OpenBao before 2.4.1 allows remote attackers to crash the server with a crafted unauthenticated JSON request. Early request handling decodes the body into a map before authentication, allowing a compact object to expand roughly 35-fold in memory and evade max_request_size. No credentials or user interaction are required; memory exhaustion causes an out-of-memory crash, while string-heavy requests also drive audit CPU consumption.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2025-59043
- Published
- Oct 17, 2025
- Updated
- Oct 17, 2025
- Vendor
- OpenBao
- Product
- OpenBao
- Classifications
- CWE-400, T1499.004
- Attack vector
- network
- Privileges
- unauthenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Oct 17, 2025CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Oct 17, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
Compare your product and version with the public record. A matching version still requires validation against your environment.
Is a vulnerable build present?
Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.
- Affected versionversion=< 2.4.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
No public exploit references are available in this record.
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
See the directory against your own environment.
Your stack
Check the software in your environment
Book a demo to see how Hinoki identifies affected software and validates exploitability in your environment.
Book a demo