# HCSEC-2026-05 - Vault KVv2 Metadata and Secret Deletion Policy Bypass Denial-of-Service

**URL:** <https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2026-05-vault-kvv2-metadata-and-secret-deletion-policy-bypass-denial-of-service/77342>\
**Category:** Security\
**Tags:** security-vault\
**Created:** [April 17, 2026, 2:39am UTC](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2026-05-vault-kvv2-metadata-and-secret-deletion-policy-bypass-denial-of-service/77342 "2026-04-17T02:39:02Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![mark.collao](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/hashicorp/user_avatar/discuss.hashicorp.com/mark.collao/32/23944_2.png) [@mark.collao](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/u/mark.collao)\
**Post date:** [April 17, 2026, 2:39am UTC](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/hcsec-2026-05-vault-kvv2-metadata-and-secret-deletion-policy-bypass-denial-of-service/77342/1 "2026-04-17T02:39:03Z")

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**Bulletin ID:** HCSEC-2026-05  
**Affected Products / Versions:**  
Vault Community Edition 0.10 up to 1.21.4, fixed in 2.0.0  
Vault Enterprise 0.10 up to 1.21.4, 1.20.9, and 1.19.15; fixed in 2.0.0, 1.21.5, 1.20.10, and 1.19.16.  
**Publication Date:** April 16th, 2026

**Summary**  
An authenticated user with access to a kvv2 path through a policy containing a glob may be able to delete secrets they were not authorized to read or write, resulting in denial-of-service. This vulnerability did not allow a malicious user to delete secrets across namespaces, nor read any secret data. This vulnerability, CVE-2026-3605, is fixed in Vault Community Edition 2.0.0 and Vault Enterprise 2.0.0, 1.21.5, 1.20.10, and 1.19.16.

**Background**  
Vault’s [kv (Key Value) v2 secrets engine](https://developer.hashicorp.com/vault/docs/secrets/kv/kv-v2) stores and versions arbitrary static secrets. [The kvv2 API](https://developer.hashicorp.com/vault/api-docs/secret/kv/kv-v2) provides data and metadata paths.

**Details**  
Due to the separate request flows for metadata and data, read access to secret data was not possible. Vault will now enforce the use of canonical paths by clients when requesting access to kvv2 data and metadata.

**Remediation**  
Customers should evaluate the risk associated with this issue and consider upgrading to Vault Community Edition 2.0.0 or Vault Enterprise 2.0.0, 1.21.5, 1.20.10, and 1.19.16. Please refer to [Upgrading Vault](https://developer.hashicorp.com/vault/docs/upgrading) for general guidance.

**Acknowledgement**  
This issue was independently identified and reported by Chung Kim from OneMount Group, as well as Andy RUSSON et Gabriel DEPARTOUT from Almond.eu, sponsored the ANSSI (French Cybersecurity Agency) open-source security audit program.

_We deeply appreciate any effort to coordinate disclosure of security vulnerabilities. For information about security at HashiCorp and the reporting of security vulnerabilities, please see [https://hashicorp.com/security](https://hashicorp.com/security)._