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Medium

OpenBao's Kerberos Auth Method Accumulates Unaccessible Tokens

Type: advisorySources: OSV

OpenBao is an open source identity-based secrets management system. Prior to version 2.5.4, in OpenBao's Kerberos auth method on the `GET` handler, or when an `Authorization: Negotiate` header is supplied, the response is includes a `logical.Auth` object in addition to an error message. This results in tokens being created with only the default policy, default TTL, and no entity information, which are hidden by the returned error message. No access to these tokens by the caller occurs and the authentication token is not ever made accessible outside of `sys/raw`. This is fixed in OpenBao v2.5.4. As a workaround, users may set a rate limit quota to limit the creation of these paths. As the path is unauthenticated, it isn't possible to deny access to it.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2026-46405
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
4 Nov 2026, 03:25 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

OpenBao's Kerberos Auth Method Accumulates Unaccessible Tokens

core-osv · Original source

Published 7 Aug 2026, 21:14 UTC

OpenBao is an open source identity-based secrets management system. Prior to version 2.5.4, in OpenBao's Kerberos auth method on the `GET` handler, or when an `Authorization: Negotiate` header is supplied, the response is includes a `logical.Auth` object in addition to an error message. This results in tokens being created with only the default policy, default TTL, and no entity information, which are hidden by the returned error message. No access to these tokens by the caller occurs and the authentication token is not ever made accessible outside of `sys/raw`. This is fixed in OpenBao v2.5.4. As a workaround, users may set a rate limit quota to limit the creation of these paths. As the path is unauthenticated, it isn't possible to deny access to it.

osv:CVE-2026-46405
Complete source record
{
  "id": "072418a504be954e14ee541249ec97e4bc5745071e617f98439a6e2624c8ccc8",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-46405",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "OpenBao's Kerberos Auth Method Accumulates Unaccessible Tokens",
    "summary": "OpenBao is an open source identity-based secrets management system. Prior to version 2.5.4, in OpenBao's Kerberos auth method on the `GET` handler, or when an `Authorization: Negotiate` header is supplied, the response is includes a `logical.Auth` object in addition to an error message. This results in tokens being created with only the default policy, default TTL, and no entity information, which are hidden by the returned error message. No access to these tokens by the caller occurs and the authentication token is not ever made accessible outside of `sys/raw`. This is fixed in OpenBao v2.5.4. As a workaround, users may set a rate limit quota to limit the creation of these paths. As the path is unauthenticated, it isn't possible to deny access to it.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2026-46405",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "medium",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2026-46405",
      "aliases": [
        "BIT-openbao-2026-46405",
        "CVE-2026-46405",
        "GHSA-7j6w-vvw2-5f9c",
        "GO-2026-5225"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:L"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/openbao/openbao",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "4f6d47246a053375271a5fd8af85c3b75695aa46"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "0d82e0a5a3b6a93e8087bcbaf0b11326c12d4f4d"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "2.5.4"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "AFFECTED_FIELD",
                    "strategy": "StringRangeExpression"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "0d82e0a5a3b6a93e8087bcbaf0b11326c12d4f4d"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "4f6d47246a053375271a5fd8af85c3b75695aa46"
                      }
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                    "source": "REFERENCES_TAG",
                    "original_tag": "v2.5.4"
                  }
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          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-46405.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:32.796753059Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/openbao/openbao/releases/tag/v2.5.4",
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/46xxx/CVE-2026-46405.json",
        "https://github.com/openbao/openbao/security/advisories/GHSA-7j6w-vvw2-5f9c",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-46405",
        "https://github.com/openbao/openbao/commit/0d82e0a5a3b6a93e8087bcbaf0b11326c12d4f4d",
        "https://github.com/openbao/openbao/pull/3150"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-770"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/46xxx/CVE-2026-46405.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2026-46405",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 500021,
  "published_at": "2026-08-07T21:14:35.512+00:00"
}