9.8

CVE-2020-16846: SaltStack Salt Shell Injection Vulnerability

CVSS: 9.8v3.1CriticalKEVAnalyzed
AliasesGHSA-qr38-h96j-2j3wPYSEC-2020-104UBUNTU-CVE-2020-16846
Published 06-11-2020Last modified 21-10-2025
Open JSON

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2020-16846 is a critical (CVSS 9.8) OS Command Injection vulnerability in SaltStack Salt. It is known to be exploited: CISA lists it, first on 03-11-2021. EPSS estimates a 99.59% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 99.9% of scored vulnerabilities. 2 public exploits are recorded.

Overall risk
85/100
0100
Critical · default modelHow is this calculated?
CVSS score
9.8/10
010
Critical · v3.1 (CVE.org)
EPSS score
99.59%
0%100%
Critical · 0.00 pp in 30 days
KEVListedCISA
RansomwareNone recordedNo known use recorded
Public exploits2reference, metasploit

Advisory lineage

Upstream 0 · Downstream 14 · Related 12
DLA-2480-1DSA-4837-1OPENSUSE-SU-2020:1833-1OPENSUSE-SU-2020:1868-1SUSE-SU-2020:14538-1SUSE-SU-2020:3155-1

Timeline

  1. 06-11-2020
    PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
  2. 03-11-2021
    Added to CISA KEVSaltStack Salt Shell Injection Vulnerability
  3. 03-05-2022
    CISA remediation dueApply updates per vendor instructions.
  4. 21-10-2025
    Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

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 metrics

5 scores · 4 sources · 2 versions

EPSS trend

Probability

99.59%

Chance of exploitation in the next 30 days

Percentile

100%

Versus all other CVEs

30-day change

0.00 pp

From 99.59% on 19-09-2026

19-09-202619-10-2026
EPSS score
99.59%

Known exploited

Compare KEV catalogs
CISA KEVListed
Added
03-11-2021
Federal due date
03-05-2022

CISA required action

Apply updates per vendor instructions. nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2020-16846

Public exploits

2 found
  • referenceUnverified

    Exploit Reference (packetstormsecurity.com)

    Maturity: unknown

  • MetasploitMetasploitremoteVerified

    SaltStack Salt REST API Arbitrary Command Execution

    exploit/linux/http/saltstack_salt_api_cmd_exec

    Maturity: weaponized

Weaknesses

CWE · root cause

Affected systems

Debian1 product
Fedoraproject1 product
Opensuse1 product
PyPI1 product
  • salt< 2015.8.13 | ≥ 2016.3.0, < 2016.3.8 | ≥ 2016.11.0, < 2016.11.10 | ≥ 2017.5.0, < 2017.7.8 | ≥ 2018.2.0, < 2018.3.5 | ≥ 2019.2.0, < 2019.2.6 | ≥ 3000.0, < 3000.4 | ≥ 3001, < 3001.2 | ≥ 3002, < 3002.1 | ≥ 3000, < 3000.3
Saltstack1 product
  • saltEOL< 2015.8.10 | ≥ 2015.8.11, < 2015.8.13 | ≥ 2016.3.0, < 2016.3.4 | ≥ 2016.3.5, < 2016.3.6 | ≥ 2016.3.7, < 2016.3.8 | ≥ 2016.11.0, < 2016.11.3 | ≥ 2016.11.4, < 2016.11.6 | ≥ 2016.11.7, < 2016.11.10 | ≥ 2017.5.0, < 2017.7.4 | ≥ 2017.7.5, < 2017.7.8 | ≥ 2018.2.0, < 2018.3.5 | ≥ 2019.2.0, < 2019.2.5 | ≥ 3000.0, < 3000.3 | 3001 | 3002
Ubuntu1 product
  • salt< 2015.8.8+ds-1ubuntu0.1+esm2 | < 2017.7.4+dfsg1-1ubuntu18.04.2+esm1 | < 0.17.5+ds-1ubuntu0.1~esm4

6 vendors · 6 products

References

37 links
Show all 37 references