CVE-2024-8185
📋 TL;DR
This vulnerability allows attackers to cause denial-of-service through memory exhaustion by sending excessive requests to Vault's Raft cluster join API endpoint. It affects Vault Community and Enterprise clusters using Integrated Storage backend. The attack can crash both the Vault process and underlying system.
💻 Affected Systems
- Vault Community
- Vault Enterprise
📦 What is this software?
Openbao by Openbao
Vault by Hashicorp
Vault by Hashicorp
Vault by Hashicorp
Vault by Hashicorp
⚠️ Risk & Real-World Impact
Worst Case
Complete Vault cluster crash leading to unavailability of secrets management, authentication, and encryption services, potentially disrupting dependent applications and infrastructure.
Likely Case
Vault service degradation or temporary unavailability requiring restart, causing brief disruption to applications relying on Vault for secrets.
If Mitigated
Minimal impact with proper network controls and monitoring in place to detect and block excessive join requests.
🎯 Exploit Status
Attack requires no authentication and involves simple HTTP requests to the join endpoint. The vulnerability details are publicly disclosed.
🛠️ Fix & Mitigation
✅ Official Fix
Patch Version: Vault Community 1.18.1, Vault Enterprise 1.18.1, 1.17.8, or 1.16.12
Restart Required: Yes
Instructions:
1. Backup Vault configuration and data. 2. Download patched version from HashiCorp releases. 3. Stop Vault service. 4. Replace binary with patched version. 5. Restart Vault service. 6. Verify cluster health and functionality.
🔧 Temporary Workarounds
Network ACL Restriction
linuxRestrict access to Vault's cluster join API endpoint (/v1/sys/storage/raft/join) using network firewalls or load balancers.
# Example iptables rule to block external access to join endpoint
iptables -A INPUT -p tcp --dport 8200 -m string --string "POST /v1/sys/storage/raft/join" --algo bm -j DROP
Rate Limiting
allImplement rate limiting on the join endpoint using web application firewalls or reverse proxies.
# Example nginx rate limiting configuration
limit_req_zone $binary_remote_addr zone=joinlimit:10m rate=1r/s;
location /v1/sys/storage/raft/join {
limit_req zone=joinlimit burst=5 nodelay;
proxy_pass http://vault_backend;
}
🧯 If You Can't Patch
- Implement strict network segmentation to limit access to Vault API endpoints only to trusted management systems
- Deploy monitoring and alerting for abnormal request patterns to the join endpoint
🔍 How to Verify
Check if Vulnerable:
Check Vault version and confirm Integrated Storage backend is in use: vault status and examine storage configurationCheck Version:
vault versionVerify Fix Applied:
Confirm Vault version is 1.18.1 or later (Community) or 1.18.1/1.17.8/1.16.12 or later (Enterprise)📡 Detection & Monitoring
Log Indicators:
- High volume of POST requests to /v1/sys/storage/raft/join endpoint
- Memory usage spikes in Vault process
- Vault process crashes or restarts
Network Indicators:
- Unusual traffic patterns to Vault port 8200/tcp with POST requests to join endpoint
- Multiple rapid join requests from single or distributed sources
SIEM Query:
source="vault.log" AND "POST /v1/sys/storage/raft/join" | stats count by src_ip