CVE-2020-16846
Published 2020-11-06 · Updated 2026-06-17 · Source cve@mitre.org
Summary
CVE-2020-16846 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) vulnerability in SaltStack Salt. CISA added it to the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog on November 3, 2021, which means exploitation in the wild has been confirmed; US federal agencies had to remediate it by May 3, 2022. CISA does not currently list it as used in ransomware campaigns. SaltStack has 3 vulnerabilities in the KEV catalog, 0 of them linked to ransomware.
All 3 known-exploited SaltStack vulnerabilities →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.
CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CISA Known-Exploited Vulnerability
Product: SaltStack — Salt
Name: SaltStack Salt Shell Injection Vulnerability
Date added: 2021-11-03 · Due: 2022-05-03
Required action: Apply updates per vendor instructions.
References
- http://lists.opensuse.org/opensuse-security-announce/2020-11/msg00029.html
- http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/160039/SaltStack-Salt-REST-API-Arbitrary-Command-Execution.html
- https://github.com/saltstack/salt/releases
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2020/12/msg00007.html
- https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2022/01/msg00000.html
- https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce%40lists.fedoraproject.org/message/TPOGB2F6XUAIGFDTOCQDNB2VIXFXHWMA/
- https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202011-13
- https://www.debian.org/security/2021/dsa-4837

