OpenBao is an open source identity-based secrets management system. Prior to 2.5.5, OpenBao users granted capabilities on /sys/namespaces/root within a non-root namespace could exploit special handling of the literal root path in namespace canonicalization. The /sys/namespaces/* endpoint family can resolve its containing namespace through a path prefix or X-Vault-Namespace header. ACL checks occurred before root canonicalized to an empty path, causing /sys/namespaces/root to resolve to the system backend's containing namespace and allowing permitted lookups, deletion, locking, or custom metadata changes against that direct containing namespace. The root namespace and arbitrary unrelated namespaces are not affected, and available operations depend on the capabilities granted on the path and subpaths such as /api-lock. This issue is fixed in version 2.5.5.

Project Subscriptions

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Advisories
Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-mwr2-wmgp-crj6 OpenBao's System Backend allows Unauthorized Management of the containing Namespace
Fixes

Solution

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Workaround

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History

Tue, 15 Sep 2026 15:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description OpenBao is an open source identity-based secrets management system. Prior to 2.5.5, OpenBao users granted capabilities on /sys/namespaces/root within a non-root namespace could exploit special handling of the literal root path in namespace canonicalization. The /sys/namespaces/* endpoint family can resolve its containing namespace through a path prefix or X-Vault-Namespace header. ACL checks occurred before root canonicalized to an empty path, causing /sys/namespaces/root to resolve to the system backend's containing namespace and allowing permitted lookups, deletion, locking, or custom metadata changes against that direct containing namespace. The root namespace and arbitrary unrelated namespaces are not affected, and available operations depend on the capabilities granted on the path and subpaths such as /api-lock. This issue is fixed in version 2.5.5.
Title OpenBao's System Backend allows Unauthorized Management of the containing Namespace
Weaknesses CWE-285
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 2.3, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:L/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}


Projects

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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: GitHub_M

Published:

Updated: 2026-09-15T15:40:32.086Z

Reserved: 2026-06-17T14:40:28.379Z

Link: CVE-2026-55775

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-09-15T16:17:16.073

Modified: 2026-09-15T16:17:16.073

Link: CVE-2026-55775

cve-icon Redhat

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cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

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Weaknesses