vulnerability / NVI-00015387 / Revision 1
OpenBao's Templated Policies Allow Privilege Escalation via Wildcard Characters
GitHub lists this reviewed advisory for github.com/openbao/openbao, github.com/openbao/openbao. Published version ranges and source prerequisites are shown below; this is not an inspection of a visitor’s application.
This report has not inspected your inventory, configuration, deployed build, reachability or evidence. A catalog listing and a severity score do not establish exposure or compromise.
01 / Meaning
Why it matters
Published affected context helps an owner decide what evidence to gather. This report has not examined your application.
02 / Applicability
The affected context
Affected versions, configuration prerequisites and known exclusions are public. Confirm each one against the deployed service.
github.com/openbao/openbao
source listed< 0.0.0-20260710001938-2d4ebafec5c5
## Impact ### ACL Policies OpenBao supports "templated polices": Policies with placeholders that are replaced at evaluation time. This allows you to write a single policy which e.g. grants user "alice" access to all entries in a key value engine prefixed with `alice/` while granting "bob" access to `bob/`, "carol" access to `carol/`, etc. If the data used in the template can be controlled by an attacker (e.g. your system allows the user to freely select their username) and "globbing" characters are considered valid ( e.g. `*` is a valid username) they will be able to escalate their privileges. The problematic characters are `*`, `+` and `/`. ### PKI Secrets Engine `allowed_uri_sans_template` and `allowed_domains` Polices The PKI secrets engine allows you to limit the "common names" a user can requests a TLS certificate for. Similar to the ACL polices this allows you to restrict e.g. "alice" to `alice.example.com`, "bob" to `bob.example.com`, etc. via templates. Again, if an attacker can control this data freely, they can trick the PKI engine into using e.g. the `*.example.com` glob effectively allowing them to issue certificates for any subdomain of `example.com` The pro
github.com/openbao/openbao
source listed>= 0.1.0, <= 1.1.5
## Impact ### ACL Policies OpenBao supports "templated polices": Policies with placeholders that are replaced at evaluation time. This allows you to write a single policy which e.g. grants user "alice" access to all entries in a key value engine prefixed with `alice/` while granting "bob" access to `bob/`, "carol" access to `carol/`, etc. If the data used in the template can be controlled by an attacker (e.g. your system allows the user to freely select their username) and "globbing" characters are considered valid ( e.g. `*` is a valid username) they will be able to escalate their privileges. The problematic characters are `*`, `+` and `/`. ### PKI Secrets Engine `allowed_uri_sans_template` and `allowed_domains` Polices The PKI secrets engine allows you to limit the "common names" a user can requests a TLS certificate for. Similar to the ACL polices this allows you to restrict e.g. "alice" to `alice.example.com`, "bob" to `bob.example.com`, etc. via templates. Again, if an attacker can control this data freely, they can trick the PKI engine into using e.g. the `*.example.com` glob effectively allowing them to issue certificates for any subdomain of `example.com` The pro
03 / Response
What to do next
- investigate
Identify the exact component and deployed version, examine the linked publisher’s conditions, and retain evidence of any mitigation.
Confirm current vendor support, compatibility and deployment evidence. This report has not tested a fix in your system. GitHub Advisory Database
A fixed release is not deployment evidence.
Check current vendor support and compatibility. After making a change, verify the deployed build and relevant runtime conditions. Keep the evidence, owner and time. An updated lockfile alone does not prove what is running.
04 / Limits
What this report cannot establish
- Customer inventory, deployment, reachability and exploitation have not been inspected.
05 / Provenance
Sources you can inspect
Each assertion retains its source. Mirrored records may repeat one underlying publisher; additional links are not independent corroboration.
- GHSA-59w7-v8rr-pr4p ↗
GitHub Advisory Database · vendor advisory
Observed . GitHub Advisory Database; CC-BY-4.0. Each advisory links its original attribution. Null normalizes fields.
Public revision history
Only published revisions appear here. Routine fetches do not create a material-change event.
- Revision 1 ·
First indexed by Null; source disclosure date is shown separately.