CVE-2022-41316 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting HashiCorp Vault and Vault Enterprise's TLS certificate authentication method. The issue arises because the system did not initially load the optionally configured Certificate Revocation List (CRL) issued by the role's Certificate Authority (CA) into memory upon startup. This flaw means that if the CRL has not yet been retrieved or loaded, the revocation list is not checked during TLS certificate authentication. Consequently, certificates that have been revoked by the CA could still be accepted as valid, undermining the integrity of the authentication process. This vulnerability is classified under CWE-295, which relates to improper certificate validation. The problem was addressed and fixed in versions 1.12.0, 1.11.4, 1.10.7, and 1.9.10 of HashiCorp Vault. The CVSS v3.1 base score is 5.3 (medium severity), with vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N, indicating that the vulnerability can be exploited remotely without privileges or user interaction, and it impacts the integrity of the system but not confidentiality or availability. No known exploits are reported in the wild at this time.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a risk to the integrity of authentication mechanisms relying on HashiCorp Vault's TLS certificate authentication method. Vault is widely used for secrets management, encryption as a service, and identity-based access control in cloud and enterprise environments. If revoked certificates are not properly checked against the CRL, attackers or compromised entities could use revoked certificates to gain unauthorized access or maintain persistence within critical systems. This could lead to unauthorized privilege escalation, lateral movement, or data manipulation within sensitive environments. Although confidentiality and availability are not directly impacted, the integrity compromise can have cascading effects on trust and security posture. Organizations in sectors such as finance, healthcare, government, and critical infrastructure in Europe that rely on Vault for secure secret management and certificate-based authentication are particularly at risk. The absence of known exploits reduces immediate risk, but the vulnerability should be addressed promptly to prevent potential future exploitation.

European organizations should ensure that their HashiCorp Vault deployments are updated to the fixed versions (1.12.0, 1.11.4, 1.10.7, or 1.9.10) as soon as possible. Beyond patching, administrators should verify that the TLS certificate authentication method is correctly configured to load and check the CRL on startup and during operation. Regular audits of certificate revocation mechanisms and monitoring for any anomalies in authentication logs are recommended. Organizations should also consider implementing additional layers of certificate validation, such as Online Certificate Status Protocol (OCSP) stapling if supported, to complement CRL checks. In environments where immediate patching is not feasible, temporary mitigations could include restricting access to Vault to trusted networks and enforcing multi-factor authentication for critical operations. Finally, integrating Vault usage with centralized security monitoring and incident response workflows will help detect and respond to any suspicious activity related to certificate misuse.