CVE-2026-5006 — Vault Vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Slash Injection in Templated Policy Paths
A vulnerability was identified in HashiCorp Vault and Vault Enterprise (“Vault”) such that an authenticated attacker may manipulate an identity value referenced by a templated policy path to gain unintended access to Vault paths. An attacker who can control the referenced identity value may include slash ({{/}}) characters that Vault interprets as additional path segments when rendering the policy. This vulnerability, CVE-2026-5006, was fixed in Vault Community Edition 2.0.4 and Vault Enterprise 2.0.4, 1.21.9, 1.20.14, and 1.19.20.
Who exploits it and how urgent it is
A 0–100 score combining confirmed exploitation, ransomware and APT use, public exploits, EPSS and severity.
How the score was calculated
- EPSS 0.3% (30-day exploitation probability)+3
- Technical severity (medium)+3
The score orders the patch queue; it does not replace your asset context (internet exposure, criticality, compensating controls).
Triage
Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the sources call it.
CISA SSVC assessment CISA
Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses (SSVC 2.0.3). A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.
Remediation
Fixes and mitigations documented by the sources — linked to the original advisory.
No fix documented by the sources we poll. That does not mean none exists: check the vendor advisory.
First 24 hours
Ordered from the record’s own fields — exposure first, because you cannot patch what you have not found. A rule-generated starting point.
- Identify exposed assets running the affected vendor/product/version combinations (Hashicorp Vault, HashiCorp Vault Enterprise).
- No fix documented in the sources: reduce exposure and monitor the vendor advisory.
- Search available logs for exploit probes matching the vulnerability class (access control), errors and authentication anomalies.
Affected scope
Vendor, product and versions as the sources word them.
| Vendor | Product | Versions | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hashicorp | Vault | ≥ 0.11.0 and < 2.0.4 | Vulnerable | CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP |
| HashiCorp | Vault Enterprise | ≥ 0.11.0 and < 2.0.4 | Vulnerable | CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP |
Attack characteristics
The CVSS vector, decoded. It describes the attack, not your exposure to it.
Every base score collected
Sources score independently and may disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.
| Score | Version | Severity | Expl. | Impact | Scored by |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.8 | CVSS 3.1 | Medium | 1.6 | 5.2 | security@hashicorp.com via NIST National Vulnerability Database |
| 6.8 | CVSS 3.1 | Medium | — | — | HashiCorp via CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP |
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N (score shown at the top: security@hashicorp.com) Weakness MITRE
Weakness class according to MITRE’s CWE catalog.
CWE-639 · Authorization Bypass Through User-Controlled Key (IDOR)
EPSS over time FIRST
Oct 13, 2026 → Oct 14, 2026 · 2 reading(s) · max 0.28%
Detection
Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not tested rules.
- Prioritize edge telemetry for the network-reachable component (proxy, WAF, IDS/IPS).
- Audit administrative actions and access to resources outside each user’s normal pattern.
Timeline
What happened to this CVE, newest first.
- 2026
- Affected products added · hashicorp/vault, hashicorp/vault enterprise
- SSVC assessment updated
- Record published
- CVSS changed · 6.8
- Source status changed · → Awaiting Analysis
- Record created in this database
- CVE published
Source activity
Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.
- 1× Official description updated · Oct 13, 2026 – Oct 13, 2026
References
1 on the record
Elsewhere on this site
Related CVEs (same products)
- High CVE-2026-89322 Vault ACL Policy Evaluation May Allow Bypass of Deny Restrictions 7d
- High CVE-2026-105816 Vault Vulnerable to Arbitrary Code Execution via Plugin Catalog Entries Restored From Raft Snapshots 7d
- Medium CVE-2026-105818 Vault PKI ACME Issues Certificate With Unvalidated SANs 7d
- Medium CVE-2026-105820 Vault's ACL policy cache allowed namespace traversal when policy names contained path traversal... 7d
- Medium CVE-2026-5051 Audit Log Plugin Directory Guard Bypass via Legacy path Option Jul 1, 2026
- High CVE-2026-5807 Vault Vulnerable to Denial-of-Service via Unauthenticated Root Token Generation/Rekey Operations Apr 17, 2026
Not in any source we poll
Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.
- No fixed version, patch or mitigation documented.
- No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
- No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
- No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.
Answered from this record
Text assembled only from the fields above — no additional claims.
What should defenders know first?
CVE-2026-5006 is "Vault Vulnerable to Privilege Escalation via Slash Injection in Templated Policy Paths", rated Medium. It affects Vault (Hashicorp); versions are in the scope table. It is not in CISA KEV, which does not rule out exploitation. CVSS 6.8 describes technical severity. EPSS 0.28% estimates the probability of exploitation in 30 days; neither replaces your asset context. First verify whether exposed or business-critical assets run the affected versions, apply vendor fixes or mitigations, and preserve logs for review.
Comments
Moderated technical discussion. Read the community guidelines.
No comments yet.
Sign in or create an account to comment and suggest corrections.