An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 2019.2.4 and 3000 before 3000.2.
Priority CRITICAL 100Exploited in the wildCWE-20Published · Updated
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Security bypass
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 1 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CISA ADP. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-306.
Summary
An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 2019.2.4 and 3000 before 3000.2. The salt-master process ClearFuncs class does not properly validate method calls. This allows a remote user to access some methods without authentication. These methods can be used to retrieve user tokens from the salt master and/or run arbitrary commands on salt minions.
Why it matters now
Exploitation Active In CISA KEV since 2021-11-03CISA due date 2022-05-03
EPSS 0.96614 99th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Public exploit Yes 2 exploit referencesTagged by NVD
Fix Partial salt (PyPI): 2019.2.4, 3000.2Red Hat: 1 without a fix
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Active
- Automatable
- Yes
- Technical impact
- Total
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | — | all versions | — | No fix listed | CNA |
| — | salt (PyPI) | before 2019.2.4 | 2019.2.4 | Patch available | GHSA-pjhf-vpx3-33r3 |
| — | salt (PyPI) | 3000 to before 3000.2 | 3000.2 | Patch available | GHSA-pjhf-vpx3-33r3 |
- — Vendor— Affected all versions Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
- salt (PyPI) Vendor— Affected before 2019.2.4 Fixed in 2019.2.4 Patch available GHSA-pjhf-vpx3-33r3
- salt (PyPI) Vendor— Affected 3000 to before 3000.2 Fixed in 3000.2 Patch available GHSA-pjhf-vpx3-33r3
CPE configurations NVD · 9
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | before 2019.2.4; 3000 to before 3000.2 | Vulnerable | SaltStack |
| cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 15.1 | Vulnerable | openSUSE |
| cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 8.0 | Vulnerable | Debian |
| cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 9.0 | Vulnerable | Debian |
| cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 10.0 | Vulnerable | Debian |
| cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:* | 16.04 | Vulnerable | Canonical |
| cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:* | 18.04 | Vulnerable | Canonical |
| cpe:2.3:a:vmware:application_remote_collector:7.5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 7.5.0 | Vulnerable | VMware |
| cpe:2.3:a:vmware:application_remote_collector:8.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | 8.0.0 | Vulnerable | VMware |
- cpe:2.3:a:saltstack:salt:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions before 2019.2.4; 3000 to before 3000.2 Vulnerable ·SaltStack
- cpe:2.3:o:opensuse:leap:15.1:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 15.1 Vulnerable ·openSUSE
- cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 8.0 Vulnerable ·Debian
- cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 9.0 Vulnerable ·Debian
- cpe:2.3:o:debian:debian_linux:10.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 10.0 Vulnerable ·Debian
- cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:*:*:*:esm:*:*:* Versions 16.04 Vulnerable ·Canonical
- cpe:2.3:o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:*:*:*:lts:*:*:* Versions 18.04 Vulnerable ·Canonical
- cpe:2.3:a:vmware:application_remote_collector:7.5.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 7.5.0 Vulnerable ·VMware
- cpe:2.3:a:vmware:application_remote_collector:8.0.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 8.0.0 Vulnerable ·VMware
Remediation
- Fix · GHSA-pjhf-vpx3-33r3 salt (PyPI) Fixed in 2019.2.4 Advisory →
- Fix · GHSA-pjhf-vpx3-33r3 salt (PyPI) Fixed in 3000.2 Advisory →
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Ceph Storage 2 | Affected | No fix planned: Will not fix |
Timeline
- 2021-11-03 Added to CISA KEV
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2020-11651
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-pjhf-vpx3-33r3
References
Exploit 2
Advisory 10
- https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/topics/releases/2019.2.4.html
- https://github.com/saltstack/salt/blob/v3000.2_docs/doc/topics/releases/3000.2.rst
- openSUSE-SU-2020:0564
- DSA-4676
- http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2020-0009.html
- 20200528 SaltStack FrameWork Vulnerabilities Affecting Cisco Products
- [debian-lts-announce] 20200530 [SECURITY] [DLA 2223-1] salt security update
- openSUSE-SU-2020:1074
- USN-4459-1
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-11651
More SaltStack Salt vulnerabilities
- TI-2020-12851 An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt through 3002. KEVCVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2021-07530 An issue was discovered in through SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2020-09350 An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 2019.2.4 and 3000 before 3000.2. KEVCVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.5
- TI-2021-07531 An issue was discovered in through SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.1
- TI-2021-12769 Buffer Overflow vulnerability in Saltstack v.3003 and before allows attacker to execute… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2021-02271 An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt before 3002.5. CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
Sources
- CVE-2020-11651 · CVE Program
- CVE-2020-11651 · NVD
- CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-pjhf-vpx3-33r3 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2020-11651 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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