Vault CE 1.21.0 / Enterprise 1.21.0: JSON DOS (unauthenticated)
CVE-2025-12044 Published on October 23, 2025
Vault Vulnerable to Denial of Service Due to Rate Limit Regression
Vault and Vault Enterprise (Vault) are vulnerable to an unauthenticated denial of service when processing JSON payloads. This occurs due to a regression from a previous fix for [+HCSEC-2025-24+|https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2025-24-vault-denial-of-service-though-complex-json-payloads/76393] which allowed for processing JSON payloads before applying rate limits. This vulnerability, CVE-2025-12044, is fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.21.0 and Vault Enterprise 1.16.27, 1.19.11, 1.20.5, and 1.21.0.
Weakness Type
Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
The software allocates a reusable resource or group of resources on behalf of an actor without imposing any restrictions on the size or number of resources that can be allocated, in violation of the intended security policy for that actor.
Products Associated with CVE-2025-12044
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Affected Versions
HashiCorp Vault:- Version 1.20.3 and below 1.21.0 is affected.
- Version 1.20.3 and below 1.21.0 is affected.
- Version 1.19.9 and below 1.19.11 is affected.
- Version 1.18.14 and below 1.18.15 is affected.
- Version 1.16.25 and below 1.16.27 is affected.
Exploit Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) scores estimate the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. The percentile shows you how this score compares to all other vulnerabilities.