CVE-2020-16846

SaltStack Salt: Shell Injection

As of , CVE-2020-16846 in SaltStack Salt is on CISA's list of exploited vulnerabilities: CISA listed it on . Our patch-first group: Patch this week.

Exploited
Yes: CISA listed it on 3 November 2021
US federal deadline
3 May 2022181 days after CISA listed it. US federal civilian agencies must fix it by then.
Used in ransomware campaigns
Not known to CISA
EPSS score
0.99Higher than 99% of the CVEs EPSS scores. EPSS estimates the chance of exploitation activity in the next 30 days.
EPSS when listed
Not availableCISA listed it before 4 February 2022, where the EPSS files we read begin.
Public exploit
1 Metasploit module
Fix
No vendor link in CISA's entry

What CISA says to do

Apply updates per vendor instructions.

CISA's required action

What the flaw is

SaltStack Salt allows an unauthenticated user with network access to the Salt API to use shell injections to run code on the Salt API using the SSH client. This vulnerability affects any users running the Salt API.

CISA's description

An issue was discovered in SaltStack Salt through 3002. Sending crafted web requests to the Salt API, with the SSH client enabled, can result in shell injection.

The CVE record's description, from mitre

CVE published
6 November 2020
Assigned by
mitre
CVSS
9.8 Critical (CVSS 3.1, from CISA-ADP)
CWE-78
Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')
CISA SSVC, exploitation
active
CISA SSVC, automatable
yes
CISA SSVC, technical impact
total

Timeline

  1. The CVE record was published.
  2. CISA added it to its list of exploited vulnerabilities.
  3. The US federal deadline to fix it.

Public exploits

Facts from Metasploit's module list and Exploit-DB's index; we never copy exploit code.

  • Metasploit: SaltStack Salt REST API Arbitrary Command Executionexploit module, rank excellent

Salt: other exploited entries

VulnerabilityProductOur groupListedDeadlineEPSS
CVE-2020-11651Authentication BypassSaltStack SaltPatch this weekMetasploit module; EPSS 0.970.97
CVE-2020-11652Path TraversalSaltStack SaltPatch this weekMetasploit module; EPSS 0.860.86

Read further