CVEs / CVE-2020-11651
CVE-2020-11651: SaltStack Salt Authentication Bypass Vulnerability
- Known exploited in the CISA KEV catalog since 3 Nov 2021
- critical 9.8 CVSS 3.1 (NVD)
- EPSS 96.6% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99% of CVEs (30 Oct 2026)
- Last changed at its sources
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Summary
SaltStack Salt contains an authentication bypass vulnerability in the salt-master process ClearFuncs due to improperly validating method calls. The vulnerability allows a remote user to access some methods without authentication, which can be used to retrieve user tokens from the salt master and/or run commands on salt minions. Salt users who follow fundamental internet security guidelines and best practices are not affected by this vulnerability.
Description
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.
Affected and fixed versions
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| n/a n/a | n/a | — |
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| salt (PyPI) | before 2019.2.4 | 2019.2.4 |
| salt (PyPI) | from 3000, before 3000.2 | 3000.2 |
Package versions from GHSA-pjhf-vpx3-33r3.
Exploitation
| In CISA KEV since | 3 Nov 2021 |
|---|---|
| Due date for US federal agencies | 3 May 2022 |
| Used in ransomware campaigns | Unknown |
| Required action | Apply updates per vendor instructions. |
Severity
| CVSS 3.1 | 9.8 criticalCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HScored by NVD |
|---|
References
- CVE-2020-11651 on NVD
- CVE-2020-11651 in the CISA KEV catalog
- CVE-2020-11651 on OSV
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-04/msg00047.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-07/msg00070.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157560/Saltstack-3000.1-Remote-Code-Execution.html Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/157678/SaltStack-Salt-Master-Minion-Unauthenticated-Remote-Code-Execution.html Exploit, Third Party Advisory, VDB Entry
- http://www.vmware.com/security/advisories/VMSA-2020-0009.html Third Party Advisory
- https://docs.saltstack.com/en/latest/topics/releases/2019.2.4.html Vendor Advisory
- https://github.com/saltstack/salt/blob/v3000.2_docs/doc/topics/releases/3000.2.rst Third Party Advisory
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/05/msg00027.html Mailing List, Third Party Advisory
- https://tools.cisco.com/security/center/content/CiscoSecurityAdvisory/cisco-sa-salt-2vx545AG Third Party Advisory
- https://usn.ubuntu.com/4459-1/ Third Party Advisory
- https://www.debian.org/security/2020/dsa-4676 Third Party Advisory
- https://www.cisa.gov/known-exploited-vulnerabilities-catalog?field_cve=CVE-2020-11651 US Government Resource
Sources
Exploitation status from the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. EPSS scores from FIRST. Descriptions, severity and references from the National Vulnerability Database. Open-source package versions from OSV (CC-BY 4.0). Text is shown as each source states it; Stackurity does not edit it. Check the vendor's advisory before acting.
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.