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CVE-2021-43837

CriticalCVSS 9.1 / 10
Published Dec 16, 2021·Last modified Oct 13, 2026
Affected Components(19)
peopledoc/vault-cli
0.3.2
peopledoc/vault-cli
1.7.0
peopledoc/vault-cli
0.3.6
1 / 7
Description

vault-cli is a configurable command-line interface tool (and python library) to interact with Hashicorp Vault. In versions before 3.0.0 vault-cli features the ability for rendering templated values. When a secret starts with the prefix !template!, vault-cli interprets the rest of the contents of the secret as a Jinja2 template. Jinja2 is a powerful templating engine and is not designed to safely render arbitrary templates. An attacker controlling a jinja2 template rendered on a machine can trigger arbitrary code, making this a Remote Code Execution (RCE) risk. If the content of the vault can be completely trusted, then this is not a problem. Otherwise, if your threat model includes cases where an attacker can manipulate a secret value read from the vault using vault-cli, then this vulnerability may impact you. In 3.0.0, the code related to interpreting vault templated secrets has been removed entirely. Users are advised to upgrade as soon as possible. For users unable to upgrade a workaround does exist. Using the environment variable VAULT_CLI_RENDER=false or the flag --no-render (placed between vault-cli and the subcommand, e.g. vault-cli --no-render get-all) or adding render: false to the vault-cli configuration yaml file disables rendering and removes the vulnerability. Using the python library, you can use: vault_cli.get_client(render=False) when creating your client to get a client that will not render templated secrets and thus operates securely.

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Risk Scores
Base Score
9.1

The vulnerability can be exploited over the network without needing physical access. It is easy for an attacker to exploit this vulnerability. An attacker needs high-level or administrative privileges. No user interaction is needed for the attacker to exploit this vulnerability. The vulnerability can affect other systems as well, not just the initial system. There is a high impact on the confidentiality of the information. There is a high impact on the integrity of the data. There is a high impact on the availability of the system.

Threat Intelligence
8.3

Exploitation activity has been observed. Apply available patches or mitigations urgently.

EPSS
5.17%

The exploit probability is very low. The vulnerability is unlikely to be exploited in the next 30 days.

Exploit
Not available

We did not find any exploit available. Neither in GitHub repositories nor in the Exploit-Database.

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