The vulnerability identified as CVE-2025-59048 affects the openbao auth-aws plugin versions prior to 0.1.1. OpenBao's AWS plugin generates AWS access credentials based on IAM policies, but it fails to correctly authorize IAM roles in multi-account AWS environments. Specifically, the plugin authenticates IAM roles based solely on their names without verifying the AWS account ID, allowing an attacker with control over an IAM role in an untrusted AWS account to impersonate a role with the same name in a trusted account. This cross-account IAM role impersonation leads to unauthorized access to resources and data that should be restricted. The root cause is an incorrect authorization check (CWE-863) combined with insufficient validation of role uniqueness (CWE-694). The vulnerability is exploitable remotely over the network with low complexity and does not require user interaction. The impact includes full compromise of confidentiality and integrity of AWS resources accessed via the plugin, though availability is not affected. The vulnerability has been addressed in openbao auth-aws plugin version 0.1.1 by implementing proper account context verification during authentication. Until patching, organizations must ensure IAM role names are unique across all AWS accounts interacting with their OpenBao environment and audit for duplicates to prevent impersonation. This vulnerability is particularly critical in multi-account AWS setups common in enterprise cloud deployments.

For European organizations, this vulnerability poses a significant risk in multi-account AWS environments, which are widely used for segregation of duties, billing, and security boundaries. Unauthorized cross-account role impersonation can lead to data breaches, unauthorized resource manipulation, and potential lateral movement within cloud infrastructure. Confidentiality and integrity of sensitive data and critical cloud services can be compromised, potentially violating GDPR and other data protection regulations. Organizations relying on openbao plugins for AWS authentication may face operational disruptions and reputational damage if exploited. The lack of availability impact reduces the chance of immediate service outages, but stealthy unauthorized access increases the risk of prolonged undetected compromise. The vulnerability also raises compliance concerns for regulated industries such as finance, healthcare, and government sectors prevalent in Europe. Given the high CVSS score and ease of exploitation, the threat demands urgent attention to prevent exploitation in European cloud environments.

1. Immediately upgrade the openbao auth-aws plugin to version 0.1.1 or later where the vulnerability is patched. 2. Conduct a thorough audit of all IAM roles across AWS accounts interacting with your OpenBao environment to identify and eliminate duplicate role names. 3. Enforce a strict naming convention policy ensuring IAM role names are unique across all AWS accounts within your organization and trusted partners. 4. Implement additional monitoring and alerting for unusual cross-account authentication attempts or role usage patterns. 5. Review and tighten IAM trust policies to restrict which accounts can assume roles, minimizing the attack surface. 6. Use AWS CloudTrail and other logging tools to detect anomalous access patterns indicative of impersonation attempts. 7. Consider isolating critical workloads into dedicated AWS accounts with minimal cross-account role sharing. 8. Educate cloud administrators about the risks of role name collisions and the importance of multi-account security hygiene. These steps go beyond generic advice by focusing on organizational AWS account hygiene and plugin upgrade urgency.