Excessive Resource Consumption Vulnerability in HashiCorp Vault

CVE-2025-6203

What is CVE-2025-6203?

CVE-2025-6203 identifies a vulnerability in HashiCorp Vault, a popular tool used for managing secrets and securing sensitive data in cloud environments. The nature of this vulnerability lies in the potential for excessive resource consumption, which can severely hamper the functionality of the Vault server. Specifically, a malicious actor could exploit this flaw by sending a specifically crafted complex payload, even if it adheres to the established request size limits. This could lead to increased memory and CPU usage, which may ultimately cause timeouts in the Vault’s auditing processes and result in the server becoming unresponsive. The implications of such an attack can disrupt services that depend on Vault for secure data management, affecting organizational operations and trust in the security posture.

Potential impact of CVE-2025-6203

1. Denial of Service (DoS): The vulnerability can render the Vault server unresponsive, leading to significant disruptions in services that rely on it for secret management, thereby affecting business continuity.

2. Resource Exhaustion: Exploiting this vulnerability can lead to excessive memory and CPU usage, severely degrading the performance of not just the Vault server but potentially other services running on the same infrastructure.

3. Increased Operational Overhead: Organizations may face additional resource management challenges, requiring them to allocate time and effort to monitor and mitigate the effects of this vulnerability, including potential downtime and impacts on SLA commitments.

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