Vault Memory Exhaustion via Large Payload (1.20.3+ Vulnerable)
CVE-2025-6203 Published on August 28, 2025
Vault unauthenticated denial of service through complex json payload
A malicious user may submit a specially-crafted complex payload that otherwise meets the default request size limit which results in excessive memory and CPU consumption of Vault. This may lead to a timeout in Vaults auditing subroutine, potentially resulting in the Vault server to become unresponsive. This vulnerability, CVE-2025-6203, is fixed in Vault Community Edition 1.20.3 and Vault Enterprise 1.20.3, 1.19.9, 1.18.14, and 1.16.25.
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-2025-6203
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Affected Versions
HashiCorp Vault:- Version 1.15.0 and below 1.21.0 is affected.
- Version 1.15.0 and below 1.21.2 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.